The Wild Card's Guides
by Good stories here
Summary: It's always complex isn't? Time that is, read on as the Persona users who once sought the truth must now help Chronos find what he has lost, least the SEES suffer the wrath of a messed up time line. See? I told you it's always complex. P4xP3 with some PQ as well and yes this takes place after the fighting games.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:Hello there! Yes, this my first story being published. So please enjoy a nice drink of milk or a hot chocolate while reading this. Also, if you have some time, please leave a review to let me know how it is. Thank you! Now then TALLY HO!**

"Welcome to the Velvet Room." That was one thing Yu Narukami was not expecting to hear any time soon.

"Wha-? Igor?" Why was Igor here? The last thing he remembered was riding a train to visit his friends and family at Inaba for Culture day. At this moment Yu realised an important detail, which was currently resting in his lap.

"Chie?" Why was Chie here? Yu's surroundings were becoming clearer by the second. He soon found all his closest friends from Inaba here within the Velvet Room, sitting on one big couch. Yosuke was leaning on Yukiko, which caused Yu to chuckle at what reaction might happen when they woke up. Kanji and Naoto were also leaning on one another.

This was starting to weird Yu out a bit, because just to the left of he and Chie were Rise and Teddie, also in the same position as his other friends. Yu decided to see if anything else was out of place. Much to the silent shock of Yu, was that the Velvet Room didn't look like a limo anymore, but more akin to living room filled with clocks. Yu decided to ask about this later, as he needed to know if his friends were in danger or not right now.

"Igor, why are my friends here?" Yu knew that if he was called to the Velvet Room, it was because he was soon going to face a great trial soon. His friends however, shouldn't be here, which lead to a single thought running through his mind '_Things are about to become complex again_'. Whatever was going to happen was going to be big.

"I'm sorry for suddenness of this meeting, but a great trial lies ahead. Not just for you alone this time." Igor said in his ever calm but creepy voice, which leads to the very girl resting in Yu's lap to wake up.

"Huh? Yu? Oh you're here early I'm going back to sleep…" Chie somehow did not realise she was in a big blue velvet room. This was something Yu quickly corrected.

"Chie, I think you need to wake up now." Yu said in soothing voice. He needed Chie to NOT freak out and potentially scare everyone else as well. They need to look at this with a calm head.

"Huh? Wait…" Chie shot up quickly bumping into Yu's chin, thus silencing him.

"Ouch! Oh sorry Yu, no! Wait! I mean, where are we?!" Everyone woke thanks to Chie's yelling and possibly to the sound of their leader in groaning slightly in pain.

"Partner? Why are you in my OUCH!" Yosuke was slapped in the face, 20 damage.

"Yosuke?! What do you think you're doing?! I mean… Wait, where are we?!" Yukiko shouted while gaining some space between her and Yosuke.

"AH!" was the reaction Kanji and Naoto shared.

"Wah?! Teddie!" SLAP! Teddie was slapped in the face, 15 damage.

"Wah?! Rise-Chan why did you slap me?" "You seemed so at ease that I couldn't bear to wake you up." SLAP! Critical hit, 30 damage.

"Wait Teddie, you were awake as well?" Yu asked hesitantly in fear for Teddies face.

"Yeah Sensei, I woke up when I heard a bear-y creepy voice talk just before." Rise glared heatedly at Teddie, he wisely moved away from Rise and closer to his beloved Sensei.

"Has everyone calmed down?" Yu asks after a few moments once everyone has gained some spaced from each other. The two with most space between them… Naoto and Kanji.

"Are your friends ready?" Igor finally breaks his silence, alerting everyone to his presence.

"Don't worry everyone, this is Igor. He's the one who helped when I went to the Velvet Room." Yu said, getting everyone's attention.

"Wait, this is the Velvet Room?" Chie asks in awe.

"Wait, THAT Velvet Room! Holy cow, partner so this is where you went." Yosuke looks like he's found a hidden treasure.

"Oh, you all know of the Velvet Room?" Igor asks showing genuine curiosity.

"Yeah, I told them Just after we saved Yukiko." Yu said in his leader voice.

"I thought it was just Yu-kun trying to play a joke on us but he kept on insisting it was real. We got used to it after a while and just accepted it." Yukiko had a face that spoke of fond memories.

"I see, then let us continue on to why you're all here." The Investigation Team nodded at this.

"Usually, only people who have signed a contract of sorts, are permitted to enter this space, between mind matter, dream and reality. There are of course exceptions." Igor quickly looks at Yu. "To this rule, for instances like now. You have all been summoned here by a very powerful being. Please, show yourself to my guests." Igor gestured to left, a tall man walked out from the shadows of the room, he looked to be wearing a white button up shirt with a black vest on, along with long black pants and shoes.

"Hello, my name is Chronos. I am the one who rules over time and death." Chronos' features where in full light now, he had dark skin colour with unruly brown hear with light blue eyes. Everyone was silent.

"I am sorry to say but, I am the reason you are all here now." This sent The Investigation Team into shocked silence.

"I have not brought you here without reason. While helping souls move to the next world something unusual happened. I was attacked by the being known as Erebus. I was forced to retaliate but the being did not yield until it achieved what seemed to be its goal. Parts of my power were sent to a specific part in time and I cannot find them. But I have an idea of where my power may be hidden. That is why I asked Igor to bring you Persona users to the Velvet Room." Chronos seemed to finish his tale.

"This is why The Velvet Room is involved as well. Erebus is a being that should not have been able to interfere with Chronos' duty. This has lead me to believe that Erebus was being controlled, by who I cannot say." Igor looked as he was about to continue, that is until one Mr Kanji Tatsumi decided he wanted an answer.

"Yeah, most of this is going over my head but… You still haven't told why you brought us here." Kanji looked to Naoto and quickly looked away due to being closer than normal to her.

"Kanji-kun's right. You haven't told us what our purpose in all this is." Naoto eyes where closed in thought. Chronos decided to answer.

"As I said before, my power was sent to a specific time period, which for you would be the past. 2009 to be precise." This caught Naoto's attention.

"That was the year Apathy Syndrome nearly caused an epidemic and, from what I gathered with our last encounter with Kirijo-san and her friends, was also when they took action against the shadows that where causing the outbreak in the first place." Naoto finished but seemed to be thinking other things over.

"Wait! Then why not just get them to handle this problem. You're the ruler of time right? Why not ask them for help." Yosuke's question got the others rolling as well.

"Partner, I think if he could have done that, he would have." Yu looked at Chronos expectantly.

"I think I get, Yosuke-sempai. What Yu-sempai is trying to say, is that the Fuuka and her friends can't help out because they already have something important to do, right Sempai?" Rise looked to Yu to see if she was correct.

"Yeah, although I have a feeling Chronos choose us for another reason." Yu switched his gaze Rise to give her a nod, then focused on Chronos once more.

"Unsurprisingly perceptive of you Narukami-san. I choose you Persona users for two reasons. Number one being the goal you achieved in Narukami-san's time at Inaba; you found the truth that was hidden deep within a fog of lies and have become more perceptive because of it. Your combined gaze can find what it chooses to seek. Unlike the persona users you will be helping who proved their will to live despite any and all hardships. Number two however, is what also gives me confidence that you can prevail in this trail; traces of my power linger around you. You must have had an encounter with me beforehand. The fact that time is not broken already proves you survived, despite my presence in what must have happened." Chronos smiled unknowingly and quickly went back to a neutral expression.

"OH! Like a paradox from the movies! Maybe we forgot, because remembering would've been bad! That's sound like something we would do!" Chie said with pride but stole glances to her friends, to assure herself as well.

"Now unlike most events that require the Velvet Room, we already know the destination and the path that was taken to get there." Igor started

"Yes, the SEES I believe they are called, fought Powerful shadow's during the full moon when he who carried the wild card arrived, which lead to his ultimate fate. However that path is now unclear, leading both Igor and I to believe that my power will be tied to him, and the shadows he will face." Chronos finished.

"We debated how you would be most able to help our guest, whether it be by assisting in the Velvet Room and acting as one over-power and help discreetly, or to allow you to follow him directly in the past helping openly. Both have flaws that could very well lead to Time's end, fortunately we came to a convenient middle road. You shall all be temporary additions to the Velvet Room as "Guides" to our guest." Igor sounded quite excited and pleased by this. The team has been afflicted with fear.

"Uh, guides? Like the ones for forests?" Kanji seemed to be mulling over what he understands.

"What do mean by that?" Yukiko asked in confusion.

"You will walk the in-between by assisting our guest in the Velvet Room and in his pursuits in reality." Igor replied in his usual manner. Yu translated this to the team as helping him in making persona and in battle.

"Oh… That makes a lot more sense." Chie said happily.

"Yeah, thanks Partner I don't I would've gotten that from this guy." Yosuke said while nodding.

"Sensei must have levelled up when he was away! He's even smarter than before." Teddie was glared at by Igor.

"Ted's right for once. That wouldn't have made sense if Yu-sempai hadn't been here." Igor's glare intensified and spread to Kanji.

"We are all in agreement on this I believe." Naoto is added to the glare.

"Yeah!" Igor's cough stops the conversation.

"It seems you are all ready. With Chronos help, you will arrive on the day our guest first visits in the Velvet room. How you join his efforts remains up to you. But, you mustn't do all the work for our guest and his friends; help them grow as you all have done. Maybe the result will lead to a new possibility to help our guest once time is restored to how it should be." Igor was starting to look excited by the journey ahead.

"I have a gift to help you on this trail. Here." Chronos clicks his fingers, and a blue V shines on everyone's shoulders, even through their clothes. "This mark will show your new position as a Velvet Room guide. It will allow you to visit the Velvet Room whenever you wish, as well as let you summon your persona when you wish as well." The Investigation Team is sent in to shock again.

"Dude, that's… I don't know what to think about that." Yosuke seemed to voice everyone's thoughts at that point.

"Yeah, I didn't think it was something we would be able to do." Yu thought back to all the times when in the TV world. They were fighters, with their persona being their most powerful tool. When they came back from the TV world, they went back to being teenagers. Only worrying about tests and how they would do in the future and how they would change as a person. A strange sort of balancing act only they could do, and were grateful for when they finished and could just enjoy the rest of their days together.

Because unlike the SEES, they weren't about tracking down shadows and keeping watch. They were fighting so things could be normal once again. They saw that calling out your persona was possible in the real world, but they didn't want to have to do that. They wanted normal, once they saw someone close to them get hurt because of their powers.

"Why would Teddie need to use his Persona in the real world? It's bear-y strange that you would allow us to do this." Teddie said in one of his moments of wisdom.

"I have my reasons for this, you will see when you get there." Chronos said in a strange neutral tone.

"You now know where your destination is and what path you must take. I will call Margaret here, so she may teach you the basics of the Velvet Room." Igor reached into his breast pocket and pulled out and a strange looking flip phone and began to talk into it.

"Hey, uh Yu… before I woke everyone up… where was I sleeping?" Chie asked clearly embarrassed by this.

"Chie-chan, you were sleeping on Sensei's lap." Teddie answered just before Yu could.

"WHA-! Teddie! I WAS TR-" Chie started but was stopped by a hug from Yu and his most useful advice.

"Clam down Chie." Yu said clearly happy to be hugging Chie.

"Oh Chie, how did you manage to get Yu to be your boyfriend?" Rise jokingly moaned.

"I… I don't know…" Chie was beet red from the teasing.

"By being Chie, that's how she got me." Yu added teasingly as well.

"Wha-" Chie was stunned but still beet red.

"Yes, it seems Chie-sempai does make Yu-sempai weak at the knees." Naoto added in good humour.

"But aren't girls meant to be weak at the knees when in love… but Yu-kun in a dress… Snirk… hahaha… bu-but then would Chie be-be HAHAHA!" Yukiko had somehow come to a funny conclusion in her mind. Let's leave her be.

"Heh, you know Partner, I'm sure you and Chie do like to try out different techniques. Hehehe." Yosuke seemed to be hinting at something. Kanji looked about ready to ask something, Yu acted before this however.

"Partner… How did you know?" Yu asked with a tilt of the head, but ended up chuckling after a second.

"Heh that's our sempai; never quite know what he's going to say next." Kanji looked like he was trying to hold back a chuckle. Chie had recovered.

"Does that mean sensei's heart is really that of a young lady's?! Chie-chan it seems that you're my rival now! Per-Bear yourself Chie-chan!" Teddie had also joined the teasing.

"Alright, alright, enough with the teasing okay." Chie still seemed to be blushing.

"Hello again." Margaret said making herself known.

"My dear guest, you seem to keep finding yourself in the Velvet Room. But this time it seems, you'll be joining it." Margaret chuckles at this, confusing the group.

"Now, all of you please follow me. We have much to do." The Investigation team is lead down a hall hidden from view whilst they were sitting on the couch.

"Sooo, what is it we're going to be learning?" Yosuke said after a long period of silence.

"We will be covering Velvet Room etiquette and what you should try to avoid during your quest. Each of you will also play a new part in making persona for our guest." Margaret's voice was riddled with excitement. Yu sighed. He was correct, things have once again become complex.

The hallway ended with nine doors that looked quite tempting to open. Like a really elaborate cookie jar filled, with either secrets or cookies, both were tempting.

"These rooms are where you'll stay until you must leave on your journey to help our guest. Although I'll discuss with Master if you'll be allowed to stay for lunch. Having all of you around would prove most entertaining."

"Partner, are they always this weird? I thought they would be more serious than this?" Yosuke whispered to Yu.

"That may have been my fault, as I learned more about Margaret she started to play around a bit more." Yu looked surprised by Margaret's playfulness as well.

"If you must know, it's my first time being a teacher, and getting to teach such interesting humans too! It's honestly quite exciting"

"Uh, maybe we shouldn't start with the lessons just yet?" Yu tried getting away from excited Margaret, seems like her and Elizabeth have a bit more in common than at first glance, Margaret chuckled at this.

"Very well, first let me assign your rooms to you. Girls will take the rooms to the right and boy will take the rooms to the left. There will new clothes for you inside the room, you don't have to wear them but it would most certainly fit the mood, wouldn't it?" Margaret seemed quite happy with this.

"I think you should let everyone settle in first Margaret, give us some time to think." Margaret gave Yu a nod and started to walk off but decided to add with a chuckle, "Don't take too long. I must admit I'm quite fond of the idea of teaching you and your friends the way of the Velvet Room."

_In Yu's Room_

Everyone is either sitting on the bed in a circle, Yu doesn't bring this up.

"You know, I kinda admit that this whole thing is a bit overwhelming to hear. Do you think we should've been given a chance to say no, or at least a warning?" Yosuke started to complain.

"While we most likely would have said yes to helping our friends, I believe Yosuke-sempai is right. They didn't seem like they were going to give us the option to turn down this request." Naoto added.

"That's something that worries me." Yu caught his friends attention with this.

"One of the things I learned about the Velvet Room is that people who are called here, are going to face a trail soon. And from what I learned from Igor, is that they are given a contract that encourages them to make real choices and accept the responsibility that comes with making them. What happened back there doesn't match what Igor normally does." Yu seemed to start thinking about the journey ahead.

"Well it might not be as bad as it seems." Kanji decided to speak up.

"Huh? Why do you think that Kanji-kun?" Yukiko asked with a head tilt.

"Well, that Chronos guy said he was attacked and lost something right? All we have to do is find the lost stuff and we can go home! Simple. Right, sempai?" Kanji's words lifted everyone's spirits.

"Yeah Kanji's right! Heck, they asked us to help find this Chronos guy's power. Maybe it'll be in some shadows, then we just have to kick it's butt and take the power back here, right?" Chie looked to Yu at the end and smiled.

"Yeah, I think we were over-thinking things before. Chronos said he rules over time. Then when we're done, we'll probably wake where we were before we got called here." Yu nodded at Chie before smirking and holding her hand.

"Plus with Chie here… I have access to the power of love!" Everyone stared at Yu before cracking up laughing.

"Partner (hehehe) I… I don't think you suit that role… (snirk, HAHAHA)" Yosuke seemed to be running out breath.

"Sensei, that was a beary bold thing to say." Teddie said before giggling again.

Everyone calmed down after a good laugh.

"Kanji-kun is right, this isn't going to be that hard. Plus Fuuka and her friends are going to be there as well, so shadows will be the least of our worries." Rise looked excited at the thought of seeing her friend again.

"Still, we should be vigilant just in case something unexpected comes up." Everyone nodded at Naoto's suggestion.

"Well, we might as well get the lesson over and done with." Yu looked strangely nervous.

"Uh, partner? What's wrong?" Yosuke said, starting to get nervous as well.

"I've only seen Margaret that excited once, and that was when she challenged me to a fight." Yu explained, bringing up memories of the rather intense clash between them and Margaret. Everyone is afflicted with fear at the thought.

Time passes as the Investigation Team learn about the Velvet Room. Yu was grateful when he learned about what they weren't allowed to do. You must not let anyone know you're from the future and are not allowed leave any of the SEES in a situation they cannot handle. What surprised Yu though, was how they were going to be helping with making new personas. He was shocked when he found out that their power was going to be augmenting the power of the new persona.

Still the time had come; Chronos was ready to send them off.

"While I'll be helping you on this endeavour, I'll be nothing more than an alarm for when my power is close by. For that I am sorry." Chronos face scrunched up slightly in distaste.

"Chronos-san, it's alright. While you might not be able to help directly, you'll still be supporting us, a bit like how Rise helps us in battle." Naoto said in attempt to comfort Chronos.

"Thank you Shirogane-san, Alright, get ready." Chronos started to glow in ethereal light.

"Remember, Margaret and I will be only informed of your journey to the past, and as usual, shall assist you as best we can." Igor said in a pleasant tone.

"Thank you Igor, we'll see the you in the past then." Yu said in the same pleasant tone. The same ethereal light start to surround the Investigation Team.

"Goodbye my students, while our time together was short I enjoyed it immensely." Margaret smiled warmly.

"While you were scary sometimes, I have to agree. You made a good teacher Margaret-sensei." Yosuke replied sincerely.

"As usual, you would have more time to say goodbye but-" Chronos was cut off as everyone was transported to the past, but unknown to them, Chronos collapsed as soon as they left.

"Chronos, what happened." Margaret ask while helping up the poor deity.

"I could feel my power there and it interfered with the send-off. They'll either appear a few days earlier or later than when the boy first appears in the Velvet Room. Igor, please inform them of this as soon as possible. I fear it could hinder our plan to keep time from collapsing." Chronos was standing by this point but looked out of breath.

"Of course Chronos, but do tell why you collapsed all of a sudden?" Igor asked as he reached into his breast pocket.

"My stolen power flared in response and tried to take what little power I have left. It was small at first so I didn't have worry but then something made its attempt almost impossibly strong." Chronos had regained his breath by now.

"Interesting, not even Nyarlathotep would be capable of this feat. Normally I would fear for our guests at this point but..." Margaret gave a knowing smile to both Chronos and Igor.

"Even if we can't see things clearly at the moment, our guests surely will. After all, they are the seekers of truth and no lie can deceive them, no matter how great or well hidden." Chronos and Igor didn't nod at this but each had a smile on their face that simply said '_of course_'.

_4/6/2009_

"Argh…" this was the reaction given by a Mister Kanji Tatsumi, a reaction shared among his friends laying on the cold, hard ground.

"Okay, where are we?" said a still sore Yosuke, it seems that the group had been dropped into their location, in more literal terms than what the Investigation Team thought.

"Well to answer your question partner, a back street ally by the look of things." The group took a moment to get up and compose themselves. Yukiko was the first to look up and witness the Dark Hour begin.

"Ah, everyone… the sky is turning green." Before the rest of the team could react the world had entered the Dark Hour.

"Ah! Where'd all this blood come from?" Yukiko has so far been reacting faster than everyone else.

"Calm down, Naoto when you last meet with Kirijo-san, did she mention any details that would be useful to use now, like why the everything looks like this now?" Yu asked in full leader mode.

"Yes, I believe this is the Dark Hour, the time when Kirijo-san and her friends had to combat the shadows in something called Tartarus. However, we should also be mindful of certain people Yu-sempai. From what I learned - little though it may be - I found out about a man that was actively using Kirijo-san and her friends for his own purposes. His name was Shuji Ikutsuki and he is our second biggest threat." Naoto seemed ready to continue, that was, until a certain bear without his fur decided to ask a question.

"Who is the biggest threat then Nao-chan? Because this guy sounds a bit like Adachi-baby from what you just said." Teddie said with confusion.

"A group called Strega." Naoto's words caused the group to mull over the information.

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Kanji suddenly shouted, startling everyone.

"I remember that, around the end of that year my house was wanted by some punks who kept saying some stuff about the end of the world. Ma was starting to get scared and was going to call the cops but, I sent them packing, no sweat right? But they kept coming back until New Year's, but each time I sent them packing they said something about Streger or whatever, not giving up so easily." Kanji finished his tale, only for Yosuke to point out.

"I swear your life has some real cliché moments, doesn't it?" Yu decided to add his own experience in as well.

"Yeah, that same group was gaining a good following at the school I was in at the time, I didn't pay much attention at first but some people in my grade started to get quite pushy in trying to get people to join. I remember having to hid during lunch hours because a group of them just wouldn't leave me alone." Yu's face spoke of annoying memories.

"It was the same at my school too, though me and my buddies at the time mainly made fun of them for the end of the world stuff, I guess that's why I wasn't bothered to much about it. Hey, Chie, did you and Yukiko have any trouble with those guys at Yasogami?" Chie and Yukiko seemed to think a bit longer on this than the others.

"Oh! I remember now, it was nothing big at Yaso High, it mostly just a gossip subject that was thrown around during lunch."

"It was mentioned a bit at the inn as well but, it was mostly the same as the gossip at school. Naoto, you must have some more information on this right?" Everyone looked at Naoto expectantly.

"Actually no. I remember being interested in finding out more but my Grandfather said that this case was being handled already by the Kirijo group. I took a different case and hoped to maybe have a chance to look into it later. But, just like Kanji said, it almost completely vanished on New Year's day." Yu then turned to Teddie to ask if the TV world was affected by any of this.

"Teddie, do you remember if there were any changes in the TV world before the fog settled in?" Teddie shook his head.

"Nope! As far as I can remember the TV world was fog filled for a while, and most of my memories don't really start until you guys came along."

Rise decided to ask, "Yu-sempai, why would that be important?"

"Well, that thing that claimed to be Izanami, was affecting the TV world and filled it with fog, and we all remember how powerful she was. So if the TV world was also affected by this then the SEES might have faced something similar." Yu looked at the exit of the alley, the Dark Hour had ended.

"I think we should move, someone-" Yu's phone suddenly rang, and of course he answered.

"Hello?" Yu asked calmly.

"Hello there, you must be Yu, I regret to inform you that Chronos wasn't able to send you to the proper time in which your guest arrives at the Velvet Room, this is only a minor setback for you but, be wary. After all, it can only take a sliver of poison to kill a mighty oak tree. I would recommend keeping a distance from your guest for now." Margaret hung up before any questions could be asked though. Yu explained the situation to his friends.

The Investigation Team moved out of the alley way and into the public area. As they passed some people by, a few of them started to glance at Rise. Yosuke and Yu picked up on this quickly and move in front of her. Then rest of the team picked up on this try and obstruct Rise from view as much as possible.

"This is bad partner, we totally forgot Rise is still a rising idol at the moment." Yu looked at Chie, his face holding a smirk that said '_I have a plan_'.

"Chie, Yukiko, Naoto, As soon as you can I need you to give Rise a complete makeover." Teddie decided his opinion needed to be heard as well.

"Oh! Teddie can help as well! Don't Worry Rise-chan! With us on your side, you'll be shining brighter than ever!" Everyone but Teddie had been afflicted with silence. Yu has recovered from silence.

"Anyway, we can't go and join the SEES just yet. The person we're meant to meet hasn't arrived in the Velvet Room yet. But we're going to need a place to sleep and I don't think when can just stay in a hotel." Kanji brought up a plan.

"Why don't we head into the Velvet Room? We could stay there until night passes and while we're there, we could figure out what to do, right?" Yu shook his head at this.

"The Velvet Room doesn't work that way Kanji, we would still be out here and would still have to face the effects of sleeping outside." The group went quite for a while and tried to find a less populated area so they could plan without having to worry about eaves droppers.

"Whoa, it's starting to get a bit cold now." Chie said with a shiver.

"Yeah, we'll need to find some place to stay now, preferably sooner rather than later." Yu said while shivering a bit himself.

"Still what are we going to tell the SEES? We can't risk them finding out about the us currently existing in this time and how we're in two places at once." Yosuke started to shiver a bit more than before.

"W-well, maybe we can just say we don't have family names any more, that we had to lose them for a cause or something." Naoto nodded at this.

"T-this wouldn't be a lie either, m-maybe have our family names temporarily removed would help us in our goals." The cold of night was getting worse for our summer clothed teenagers.

"Hello there?" The group collectively turned to see an old man walking towards them. "Oh? What are a group of young'ins doing out so late?"

Teddie decided to answer, "Well, we're looking for a place to stay the night." Everyone but Teddie and Rise are afflicted with silence.

"Why would you need to do that. Surely you could just go home to your families." 20 SP lost, due emotional wounds.

"We, we can't do that and, before you ask it's kind of a long story." The old man's face took on a empathic look.

"We all seem to have one or another don't we? Oh, I forgot to introduce myself my name is Kitamura Bunkichi, but please call me Bunkichi for short! I don't need too many reminders that I'm old after all!" The Investigation team all introduced themselves formally, but left out their last names.

"You're a polite bunch! Most children these days aren't so kind to people like me." Bunkichi said with a playful smile. The cold was really starting to get to the group. Bunkichi then surprised them, "Why don't you kids come with me and stay the night?"

Yukiko voiced her thoughts on this, "W-why would you do that? You only just meet us now."

Yu nodded at this, "I-it's a generous offer but we can't accept. That would be imposing on you too much Bunkichi-san."

Bunkichi gave a warm laugh at this, "Then I insist even more, I never meet such polite children! Plus it's the least I could do to help to help a bunch of children who might get sick from the cold."

Kanji than stepped forward, "T-then is there any way to pay you back?"

Bunkichi then went into thoughtful looking state, "Well, maybe you could get some part time jobs or help out at our book store that's opening soon if you really want to. But enough talk, you children are looking colder by the second." Bunkichi then started to wander off with the Investigation Team following nervously, they soon arrived at Bunkichi's house. Yu noted that it was decently sized and had a second floor.

"Now I'll help you get set up for the night and in the morning we can maybe talk some more." A few minutes later, the boys were sleeping in the living room while the girls got a spare room. This was mainly Teddie's fault for the reasons that resemble a hand mark on the cheek and a poorly timed comment by said fur-less bear.

**Thank you for reading, I hope to see you again.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Sorry this took so long but I will say that this is more so a side thing for me, so I get little bits done at a time. Also this chapter going to be a bit shorter than the first one, apart from that, grab yourself a warm glass of milk or a hot chocolate just relax and enjoy yourself.**

_4/7/2009_

6 AM, this was a thing that Chie had come to dislike over the years and her female companies shared the same feelings this morning. The reason for this was because of their currently… shaggy state, the boys however felt that 6 AM was a wonderful thing this morning, why? A kind lady by the name of Kitamura Mitsuko was why.

"Bunkichi, why are there four boys sleeping in our living room?" Bunkichi gave his wife a very guilty smile.

"Oh, they were part of a group of children I picked up last night. I could have sworn there was more though, did they leave in the night maybe?" Bunkichi's face has turned thoughtful; Yu starts to open his mouth to explain the situation to her.

"Good morning kind miss! Thank you for letting us stay the night!" Teddie was quicker however.

"Sorry about imposing on you like this but we had nowhere to go last night and it was getting quite cold." Yu says quickly before Teddie can continue to try and use his charm on the old lady.

"We tried to turn down his offer, but, he got really persistent. So just let me know if you need anything done around the house!" Mitsuko looks surprised by Kanji's words

"Yeah, maybe we should introduce ourselves first guys." Yosuke's looks slightly embarrassed at how the situation unfolded, the boys quickly give out their names once again without a family name.

"You are a polite bunch aren't you? My name is Kitamura Mitsuko and I'm sorry if my husband was a bit pushy last night."

"I didn't push them dear, I would have remembered if I did something like that, the most I did was a pat on the back." Mitsuko shook her head softly.

"There you go again, anyway boys. My husband said there were more of you here?" Yosuke nodded

"We have four girls with us but… I think we should avoid them, for the moment at least." It seems Yosuke had a flash back to the morning after mystery food X, Yosuke is afflicted with fear.

"Not the morning type I guess, well I think we can let them have a sleep in. Some breakfast might be in order, though. Do you boys have any problems with omelettes and toast?" The boys all shook their heads, Mitsuko walked over to the kitchen and started to grab the necessary ingredients.

"Ah Kitamura-san? Do you mind if I help out? It's seems kinda of uh… rude, you know, to not help cook and all, since we got to stay here for free and… Well." Mitsuko put down the eggs she was carrying.

"Thank you for the offer Kanji-san but cooking in the morning just wakes me up! I remember when our son brought his friends over as a child and…" Mitsuko face loses a bit of its pleasantness and starts to drop into a frown.

"I know what you mean Mitsuko-san, I used to do something similar." Bunkichi face quickly shifts from sad to grateful to cheeky.

"Oh? Was it a girl?" Yu quickly explains before things take a turn for the worse.

"Ah, it was just a younger cousin of mine; I used to stay with her family." The conversation turns to lighter subjects soon after, Mitsuko finished cooking breakfast and called everyone up to eat. One bite in and pure bliss was found dancing in the boys mouths like a waltz to the opening song of Fantasia.

"This, this is!" Teddie started.

"I never thought I'd able eat food like this outside of partner's cooking!" Yosuke is crying tears of joy.

"I was going to be happy just eating food that didn't look purple but oh man this takes the cake!" Kanji is nodding his head in approval.

"So this is what it's like, to receive something so small but to be happier than before because of it!" Yu seems to have made a new memory. It was then that the girls made an appearance, albeit a slightly awkward one. For some reason Chie, Yukiko, and Rise are afflicted with silence.

"Ah, please excuse them." Naoto says after an awkward pause.

"My name is Naoto, and don't worry about them. I think they just weren't expecting to see, well…" Naoto gestured to the three boys and furless bear still in a bliss induced daze.

"He he he, you're just as polite as the boys Naoto-san. May I ask for your names as well girls?" that snapped the three of them out the silence, one quick introduction later and Mitsuko had learned all their names.

"Alright that's four more omelettes and toast, what a big breakfast! Me and Bunkichi haven't had this many guests over in a while." Yukiko starts to smile kindly.

"Let me help with that Mitsuko-san. It wouldn't be right since we got to stay for free and-" Yu snaps out of his daze.

"Yukiko, maybe you can help cook some other time." Yu said with a slightly strained voice, the other boys and bear also come back from their daze.

"Actually next time Mitsuko-san cooks, we can all help." Yosuke said after getting a quick read of the situation, Yukiko actually thinks this over.

"Well, I guess but it feels a bit wrong not to help now." Yu breathes a sigh of relief, and shortly after he hears Chie mumbling.

"How come my cooking doesn't get that reaction?" Rise is patting Chie on the back, after everyone eats breakfast Bunkichi asks a question.

"While I'm glad this all worked out but, what were you kids doing out so late?" The Investigation team start to frown at this.

"We… recently got caught up helping a friend of ours, and we can't go back to our families because of that now." Naoto eyes widen slightly at Yu's explanation, Mitsuko and Bunkichi don't notice however. Naoto quickly takes over Yu for the story that she was guessing was going for a vague version of the truth.

"While we won't name tell you our friend's name, I will say that he lost quite a few valuable things and as of yet. None of us have been able to find what our friend lost." Bunkichi's face started to turn into a frown.

"But why wouldn't you still be able to go home because of that, what could this fellow have lost that it would leave a group of children out on the street at night?" Naoto looked slightly to the side, she started to reach for hat but remembered that she was currently hatless.

"Thank you for the concern Bunkichi-san but, what our friend lost was truly something precious and has asked us to keep it a secret to all but a select few." Everyone in the Investigation Team was fidgeting apart from Yu and Naoto who keep themselves still under Bunkichi and Mitsuko's thoughtful gaze, eventually Mitsuko looks to her husband.

"Dear, I think this must be a sensitive subject for them." Bunkichi's gaze becomes a bit unfocused

"I wonder if there will be a sale at the shops today…" The team was through off by this but Yu quickly smiles.

"Thank you bunkichi-san." Mitsuko is softly shaking her head once more but is also smiling.

"Did I remind you of a sale that's going today?" It's seems Bunkichi honestly forgot what the topic at hand was.

"Ah guys, I hate to bring this up but where are we going to stay tonight?" Rise brings up glumly.

"You could stay here again for the night." Mitsuko shakes her at this.

"While it was nice that you gave the children here a place to stay for the night, we won't be able to support eight growing teenagers dear." Kanji nods in agreement.

"Don't worry about us Bunkichi-san, we'll find a place to stay again." Bunkichi faces then lights up.

"I remember last night I said if you wanted to pay me back you could get some part time jobs! And soon enough we'll be opening up a book store soon, you could help us out there too!" Yukiko looks slightly shaken.

"Bunkichi-san… Why are recommending all this?" Bunkichi's face goes from smile brightly to smiling softly.

"Honestly, I think it's because you children looked so out place. I see lots of people on my night time strolls but you children just looked so lost and, my son did the same once for some of his friends. Hmm, I guess it's harder to explain than I thought." Mitsuko starts to frown a little.

"Well, I guess if you were bringing in money then it wouldn't be too much of a problem but, Bunkichi dear. They can't stay here forever, they'll need to find a place to stay as well." Mitsuko states firmly to her husband.

"That honestly sounds like a good idea to us, don't worry Mitsuko-san we'll be out of your hair in no time!" Yosuke says happily.

"Yeah, and if you ever need a hand, just give us a call and we'll be there in a flash." Chie is smiling at the old couple warmly.

"But Chie, they don't have our number, so how can they call us?" Chie looks at Yukiko in shock.

"Actually that's a good idea, does everyone have their phones here?" The Team nods brings out their phones, one quick phone number swap later.

"Well, now that's settled. Bunkichi-san, would you happen to know of anywhere we might be able to apply for work?" Bunkichi looks thoughtful but Mitsuko starts to talk before he can say anything.

"There's quite a few jobs being requested at Paulownia Mall but, Bunkichi and I are going to opening up a book store of our own, I'm sure we would be able to find some work for you kids to do there." Kanji looks at Mitsuko with determined eyes.

"I'll help out with the shop, just leave all the heavy lifting to me." Yu remembers how everyone was when they first arrived at the Velvet Room… Why not? Might as well help Kanji get Naoto to notice his affections.

"Naoto why don't you help out Kanji as well?" Naoto gives this a quick think while Kanji is temporally shocked.

"Hmmm, why not? I've always had a fondness for books, perhaps I could use this as a chance to get back into reading some novels." Naoto is oblivious to Yu's pretty blatant move to get Kanji with her, everyone else in the Investigation Team is now staring at Yu weirdly.

"Ah would you look at the time, Bunkichi and I are expecting a call soon to order in the last of the books. Kanji-san, Naoto-san, are you going to stay here or are you two going to see what your friends are going to do?" Bunkichi chuckles a bit at this.

"Now, now dear, I'm sure they'll be fine, plus I'm sure they'll find out later. It's not like they'll be staying here all day." Yu gets up and offers Chie his hand.

"I think we should be going now. Ah, if you wouldn't mind Mitsuko-san, could you please tell us where Paulownia Mall is?" Rise then whispers to Yu.

"Sempai, I think I'll stay here. People weren't sure of who I was last night but if I go out now someone will definitely notice who I am." Yu nods at this.

"Naoto, Rise wants to stay here as well. When we get back could you all help Rise out like she wanted?" The Investigation catches on quickly while the old couple are slightly confused.

"Sure thing Rise-chan, we're going to have a lot of fun when we get back!" Yukiko is smiling warmly at Rise.

"Don't get carried away now, we still have to go job hunting remember? The city is a lot more competitive about these types of things." The girls give Yosuke a blank stare, unreadable to all but the females… and Yu, don't ask why.

"Ah, we should probable leave now." Yu says hastily for an unknown reason.

_Paulownia Mall_

The Investigation Team look at the surrounding area in silent awe while looking around, Yu then decides to bring up what jobs they want to look for.

"So, do you guys have an idea of what you want to do?" Yu asks while surveying the shops.

"Well a change of pace from the Inn would be nice, maybe something musical? Hm, I think I'll have a look around before I make up my mind." Yosuke looks at Teddie with a slightly concerned face.

"Hey Ted, you've been a bit quite lately? What gives?" Yosuke then hears Teddies mumbling something about scoring with chicks and learning how to cook, Yosuke decides to leave him be and quickly looks for a shop to work at, his eyes land on Power Records.

"A CD store huh? Now that's something I can work with." Yu sees an opening, Yu takes the chance with gusto.

"Yukiko, why don't you go with Yosuke to the CD store? You might learn something new there." Yukiko and Yosuke are baffled by this, everyone else, besides Teddie, are simply staring Yu down with the 'What are you up to stare?'

"Okay partner, I know you're planning something, what are you up too?" Yu's been caught! Yu comes clean.

"When I woke up in the Velvet Room everyone was leaning on each other in pairs, and I remember at one point or another you guys brought up dating, so I thought 'why not?' and I tried to get you guys alone with each other to see how things would go." Yu said this with straight face, Yosuke sighs.

"Dude? Really, I mean, I guess you had good intentions and all but… there something called subtle, and I think you need to use that to make these things work." Chie nods at this.

"Yeah, I have to agree. I think you should been more subtle about this Yu-kun, other why's you'll have results that Teddie usual gets." Teddie lifts his head in response.

"You call Chie-chan?" Teddie is alight with sparkles that would make the manliest of man embrace the spirit of Christmas.

"Ah… Sorry Ted, I didn't call you but uh… Well…" Yu is looking at Chie expectantly.

"Ah… You see… Okay, yeah, there is no way subtle would work too well on us." Yu folds his arms in victory.

"What's going on?" Teddie is afflicted with confusion.

"Partner is trying to get us to date each other." Teddie looks at his beloved sensei with more sparkles than a moe character in comedy anime.

"S-sensei! Thank you!" Teddie tries to hug Yu but Yu is pulled to the side by Chie.

"Sorry about that guys, still I don't it's a bad idea, can you at least give it a try?" Everyone but Teddie and Chie look uncom-fur-ble with this, the reasons being Teddie finally gets to try and date someone and not be shot down while Chie knows that Yu and her are already a couple.

"Well, I'll give it a try but Yosuke." Yosuke snaps to attention.

"Please be a gentleman at all times, okay?" Yukiko's voice while sweet, contained an edge that made Yosuke say.

"Y-yes ma'am!" The pair walk towards the CD store in slightly awkward fashion, Yu then turn to Teddie.

"Teddie, do you know a place where you and Rise might like to work at?" Teddie proceeds to make over the top gestures of searching the area, until he points to a certain blue store.

"… Really?" Yu sighs in agreement with Chie, Teddie has picked out _Be Blue V_ however Teddie doesn't seem to notice what's wrong with this.

"What's wrong sensei? Is this store not Bear-y good?" Yu shakes his head.

"No, this actually might be good for you Ted, maybe even more so for Rise." Chie looks at Yu with a confused expression.

"Got any reasons for this Yu-kun?" Yu nods and looks at Teddie.

"Well, Teddie helped out with some of the decorations for events at Junes and Rise has given as good fashion advice whenever we asked for it. This looks like an accessory shop for the window displays, it'll give Teddie something new to learn and can maybe help Rise teach Teddie something about fashion and acting in public." Chie looks skeptical.

"Did you make any of that up?" Yu shakes his head.

"No, that and most of my reason is that I also want to see what's going to happen if Rise and Teddie get a job like this." Chie gives Yu a dead pan look, as Teddie had already wondered into the store while Yu was talking.

"Well, we should probable get onto looking for work." As if in sync Yu and Chie's eyes land on the Chagall Café.

"I have the perfect reason to help improve you're baking skills now." Chie looks defeated.

"Yu-kun~" Yu grabs Chie's hand and walk towards the café. Lady luck was on their side this day, and all of them went back Bunkichi and Mitsuko with a job, even Teddie, how he got his job though may lie in the fact that people who don't know him well can't resist his sparkle, sparkle.

_The Kitamura Residence_

The girls quickly hurry Rise into the spare room they slept in, Yu delivers the good news in this time.

"Talk about good luck, so all of you kids have a job now." Yu nods.

"That you work from around launch time to late afternoon." Mitsuko questions.

"Yup." Yosuke confirms.

"Even Ted?" Kanji looks amazed but skeptical, as he should.

"I even got Rise-chan a job their too." Yu sighs in pity for the store owner, they have no idea what they've unleashed. The door to the spare room opens with a re-styled Rise walking out.

"It's a bit hard to see like this Yukiko-sempai, I mean I like the pony tail at the back but the fringe at the front covering my eye? I'm still not too sure about that." Naoto shakes her head at this.

"I understand that it may annoy you a bit Rise-san but if people can't get a good look at your whole face then less people will think of Risette and will simply pass it off as a coincidence, plus the different hair style will also throw off people looking for the distinct hair style of Risette at the moment." Naoto explains with a light style, apparently proud of helping create her friend's new look.

The day slowly drifted away with the Rise, Kanji, and Naoto finding out about Yu's dating plan for them, getting the same reactions he got at the mall. Night came as did the dark hour but so did sleep, and in the Investigation Team's sleep, they were finally called to service. They finally arrived in the Velvet Room.

_?_

"Welcome my new staff." Yu slowly wakes up in the Velvet Room, with everyone else slowly joining him. Yu takes in the Velvet Room's surroundings noting it looks to be a elevator with furniture being put in, only to realize for once, he was on the other side of the room. The side that waits for its guest, he also notices that he wearing Velvet Room clothes but being on the resident side was still higher on the priority list; Yu sees Igor and Elizabeth walking over to them from the other side of the room.

"Hello there, my name is Elizabeth. My Master Igor tells me you're to aid us and our guest, please enlighten on how you plan to do this." Naoto steps to the front of the group.

"Margaret, from our time of course, explained that we will be assisting in his creation of new persona and we'll also be their to make sure he won't be attempting to fight a foe he can't overcome." Igor walks to middle of the room and sits on the chair that is placed there. Everyone stops to look at Igor just in time to see him pulling out a deck of tarot cards.

"I'm guessing that your own power will be used during the fusion process, thus augmenting the persona's power, I wonder... could one of you come over here please and Elizabeth please summon two personae from the compendium. I would like to see what my future self came up with for this fusion process."

"Personae? Wait, I mean, I'll give this a shot." Yosuke looks to everyone to see if there okay with this, apparently everyone but Teddie was okay with this.

"Wait! I want to go!" Teddie has a serious look on his face, the Investigation Team can guess why he wants to though.

"You're trying to impressive Elizabeth aren't you?" Teddie acts like he wasn't totally transparent about his intentions by looking very, very shocked.

"How did he know~?" Yosuke shakes his head and finally walks over to the table.

Elizabeth puts the two personae, Pyro Jack, and Jack Frost, on the table in front of Igor.

"Now, how shall we go about this?" Yosuke then thinks of an idea.

"Wait a sec, I'm going to call my persona." Yosuke closes his eyes in concentration and slowly a card appears in front of Yosuke.

"Here, usual I smash this to call out my persona but this might be what Margaret was talking about." Igor takes the floating card out the air and puts it on the table, the cards now in a triangle, Igor starts the fusion. The cards start to rise and glow, then the card Yosuke summoned breaks and unleashes a torrent of air catching everyone off guard.

"PARTNER!" Yu calls out.

"YEAH?!" Yosuke calls over the torrent of gales.

"I THINK YOU HAVE TO CONTROL YOUR POWER FOR THE FUSION TO WORK LIKE MARGARET SAID WOULD MOST LIKELY HAPPEN!" Yosuke looks up and reaches his hand out and beings to focus, willing for the winds to die down.

"ALRIGHT!" the gales die down to a gentle breeze and Yu quickly checks to see if everyone is okay.

"The power you put in is still apart of the fusion process, interesting. This new fusion isn't over yet, please keep the power under control until the end, I believe we will be rewarded with a new possibility once this is over." Igor raises his hands and seems to be forcefully completing the fusion with a differentiate type of power. After a big flash of light everything dies down and so does a single persona card which land on the table, Igor picks up the card and begins to examine it.

"Master what has happened to it?" Igor doesn't reply for a few more seconds until.

"Amazing! You've truly augmented the persona in a new way! You've added you're element to it!" No one but Igor himself seems to know what he's talking about.

"Ah, I apologize, every persona has an element that makes up aspect of their being. This young man's element is wind as I'm sure we just learned." Igor chuckles slightly while the Investigation Team remains silent.

"Now why this is amazing is because no one persona, not even some of the more powerful ones that wildcards call upon, can have every element. Most only have one that will empower, protect, and serve them and while fusion does give persona the ability to use other elements and sometimes on a rare occasion protect them from the element that harms what in essence it's very being." The Investigation Team turn to Yu to translate, which lead to a short analogy about ice cubs gaining the ability to block and absorb fire.

"Master, that was very long winded. Perhaps you should take this young man's lead, Yu Narukami I believe his name was." Igor glares silently at Elizabeth for a moment before continuing.

"In short, you've added a new element to the persona. Which was impossible, until now it seems." A ticking sound soon resonates through the room.

"It seems our time is up, after all. Time marches on in your world but please make some time tomorrow though, we have much to do." and then darkness fell.

**Thank you for reading, I hope to see you again**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello ladies and gentlemen, before we continue I have to apologize. See when I made the promise that I had 15 chapters ready that was only a half truth. I had 15 chapter plans ready, as in I had the bare bones of an out line ready but, even a half truth is still a deception and for that I apologize. I over estimated how much I could write while both maintaining a part time job, a Youtube channel, and finally making time for friends and family. I've dropped the ball and broken my promise to you readers and that's not acceptable at all, especially not on Christmas Eve when I've released what chapters I do have for your reading purposes. **

**Still enough of my failings, you came here for an exciting and wonderful adventure! So please help yourself to a warm milk with honey or a hot chocolate with as many marshmallows as you want in it, so please sit back and enjoy what little I have here. And without further ado, TALLY HO! **

_4/8/09_

Yu was a morning person, as was Kanji, and Naoto, and Chie for that matter, Teddie doesn't count as a morning person, why? Because he is a bear, a morning, day, evening, and night bear. The rest however were more or less tolerant of the morning because of their time in Inaba, tolerant does not mean accept however.

"Partner?" Yu looked away from the frying pan filled with eggs.

"Yes partner?" Yosuke then looked at Kanji, Naoto, and Chie from across the table.

"How do you have the energy to be making breakfast?" Rise then looked at Yosuke in a zen looking state.

"Yosuke-kun, shhhhh. Take it as a gift, take it as a gift." Yukiko nodded at this, while Yosuke noted this as another side of Rise he just hadn't seen yet.

"Ah, Chie-sempai… Is Yukiko-sempai alright? I've never seen her this quiet before." Chie sighed, Teddie was also worried but was trying to fix the matter by trying to make Yukiko laugh, however no matter how sweet he thought his un-bear-able bear puns to be, Yukiko just wasn't talking.

"Don't worry about her, I've seen her like this plenty of times, she's just mentally charging herself up for the day." Kanji then brought up a counter point.

"She wasn't like this yesterday though." Chie shook her head.

"Actually she was, there was a reason why we didn't come out of the room until a few minutes had passed." Naoto joined in with a playful smile on her face, Kanji is afflicted with silence.

"It's a common belief that people's personality will undergo a dramatic change when tried, sleepy, or otherwise. I thought this to be only a myth though, that is until I saw Rise when we stayed at…" Naoto then spotted Mitsuko and Bunkichi coming down the stairs, and in the spur of the moment decided it would be best to pretend to fumble some of the details.

"When we stayed at… Hm, it seems that the name of the inn has slipped my mind. Well, I'm sure I'll remember the name later." The old couple over heard this and decide to share some stories of their own.

"An inn huh? I remember this time when Mitsuko and I decided to stay at one during a vacation we had when we were just starting our life together but I could tell even back then that we were going to last!" Bunkichi said with enthusiasm.

"We'll I wasn't so sure then, let me give you girls a piece of advice, try to avoid inns that have hot springs, because I caught my dear Bunkichi trying to peep on me, one too many times for one night I might add." Yosuke and Teddie start to sweat from the glares the girls were sending them, why were they glaring?

_"You-YOU PERVERTS!"_

The guys swear they still could feel some phantom pain from Marie's attack, the two boys were then saved by Bunkichi.

"Yeah, Mitsuko then demanded that I sleep in a different room that night! Oh but I wasn't one to give up you see." Bunkichi's story was interrupted by Yu serving breakfast.

"Since you cooked us omelettes for us Mitsuko-san, I've cooked some omelettes for you… Please go on with the story though; I'm curious as to what Bunkichi-san did next." Chie suspected Yu was taking mental notes in his head in case something ever happened between the two of them, she was correct.

" Well, Bunkichi then decided he would win his way back into my room that night by convincing the inn staff to let him cook for me, and before any of you ask, the meal was average to say the least. He didn't stop there, so he decided to sing and dance for me, it was about the same as the meal he cooked me but, by that point he had won over the staff of the inn and before I knew it I was having one of the best nights of my life because of his efforts. He was most certainly allowed back into my room that night." The story seemed to have snapped Rise and Yukiko out their zen states.

"That's so romantic! Would've been better if Bunkichi-san wasn't trying to peep though" Rise shot Yosuke and Teddie a disapproving look.

"Then again I don't think we're much better." Yukiko thought back to the incident at the Amagi inn, this time it was the boys who sent the girls a glare, Rise and Yukiko start to sweat under the guys heated looks.

Once breakfast was finished Yu decided to text everyone to ask that they meet at the park around midday, with Bunkichi and Mitsuko nearby they couldn't risk talking about the current situation.

"Well would you look at the time Chie." Chie looked at her phone to see it was nearly 6:30, meaning they only had thirty minutes to get to work!

"Wah! Oh no, oh no, oh no, we gotta hurry Yu! Ah we're lucky we get our uniforms today or else we would have to get changed as well!" Yu quickly finished washing his plat clean in the sink and dried his hands.

"The rest of you guys better get ready soon too! Come on Chie we can make if we run!" The two quickly hurried out of the house and said goodbye.

"So… How do you guys think their first day on the job is going to go?" Yosuke whispered to the rest of the team, while Bunkichi was chatting to Mitsuko.

"I reckon sempai is going to take over the baking of the place pretty quickly." Kanji thought back to all the times Yu had made various meals.

"I think sensei might be doing a bit of everything, maybe he's planning to use the café as an excuse to teach Chie-chan his cooking style?" Yosuke looked at Teddie with a thoughtful gaze.

"Yeah, I'm with Ted on this one, what about you Naoto, what do think is going to happen." Naoto crossed her arms and smiled playfully.

"I'm almost positive that sempai will take over at least one of the café's facilities." Yukiko nodded at this.

"Are we all think thinking Yu-kun is going to take over the café?" Rise shrugged at this.

"Hey, if Chie-sempai is there then he probably will. Plus I think Chie is going to be in charge of taking food and drink to the customers." Everyone nodded at this.

"I almost feel sorry for whoever runs the café, almost, I'm pretty sure they're going to be getting a boost in customers soon but not in the way they want." Rise's comment caused the Investigation to then look at the front door.

"Damn, now I kinda want to see what's going to happen when they get there now." Kanji's sentiment was shared throughout the team.

* * *

"Ah… Yu? Are you okay?" Chie looked nervously at her boyfriend, he did not answer but that over shadowed look on his face did not spell out super happy fun times.

"So kid, what do you think of my cake and coffee combo? Judging from the look on your face I must have done pretty well." The rest of the staff there sighed at the chefs antics, but kept watching to see the silvered haired lad's opinion.

Yu's head snapped up "I will be taking over food and drink preparation from this point forward, there will be no arguments in this…" Chie sighed as the staff and owner of the café started a useless one sided battle on Yu's unofficial takeover of Chagall Café.

* * *

"Agh, cra… I mean darn, we've only got about fifteen minutes left!" Yosuke comment seemed to spring the rest of the team, save Naoto and Kanji, into action. A quick goodbye later and only Bunkichi, Mitsuko, Naoto, and Kanji where left in the house.

Bunkichi then looked at Naoto and Kanji and a sly smirk came onto his face "So are you two dating?" thus began a series of events that actually did lead to the pair dating, because after Bunkichi's comment, both got flustered, tried to leave the room for a moment, stumbled, and fell onto each other, Bunkichi and Mitsuko then decided to play match maker as well, such fun.

...

...

Yosuke and Yukiko got settled into their job pretty quickly with Yosuke checking through the stock and Yukiko on the front counter. However despite it being a CD store, no one was coming in so Yosuke decided to break the ice.

"So Yukiko… What do you think about Partner trying to play match maker with us? I mean I know you said you were fine with it but… Ah, do you have anything else to say about it?" Yosuke looked at Yukiko to see her giving it some thought.

"Honestly, it's a little off putting really. I mean trying to hook people up just because someone thinks they'll look good together? That's a little bit creepy if you ask me."

'Wait, doesn't that mean she thinks partner is creepy at the moment?' Yosuke thoughts where soon interrupted by Yukiko.

"But, I know Yu-kun did have some good intentions. I mean all of us have brought up dating at some point or another." Yukiko then gives Yosuke a deadpanned look.

"Hey! I didn't bring it up that much…" Yukiko's look doesn't change.

"Okay, so maybe I brought it up a bit more than should have at times." Yosuke scratched his head as he said this.

"Well, why did you bring it up so much?" Yukiko's expression then changed.

"Was it… Maybe a way of coping?" Yukiko asked nervously. Yosuke remained surprisingly calm much to Yukiko's surprise.

"A little bit I think, but… Most of the time it was pretty much what it looked like." Yosuke chuckled nervously Yukiko, much to her credit, did not show any signs of annoyance but instead sighed.

"Well at least you're honest about it." Yosuke wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not but quickly decided to change the topic.

"Soooo… Did you have a crush on someone before this?" It was at this Yukiko showed signs of annoyance, lots of signs, most of them one would take as a 'Shut up' or 'you're walking on thin ice right now' Yosuke is very good at reading signs.

* * *

Be Blue V was currently in a state change, said change was Rise giving Teddie a basic fashion 101. For the sake of interest and the writer not being in the know about fashion, we shall skip to the end of Teddie's fashion lesson.

"So did you get all that Teddie?" Rise said sternly, Teddie's reply was to be expected.

"My heads spinning!" Teddie seems to have be afflicted with dizzy, Rise sighed in response.

"Okay, maybe I tried to teach too much in one go." Rise started to look at what stock they had to sell when something caught her eye.

"Hey, Teddie look at this!" Teddie proceeded to do so.

"Isn't that a guard band?" Rise nodded, it was most certainly a guard band. Teddie and Rise started to explore the shop to see what other accessories it had.

"Wow~WE! Rise we got our battle accessories back!" Rise was about to agree when a realisation hit her.

"Wait a second Teddie. Remember how Yu-sempai often went shopping for our equipment? If this other guy is anything like Yu-sempai then he's going to be shopping here quite often!" Teddie didn't react to this, Rise then realised she would need to explain further.

"We're going to have a harder time hiding our goal if our guest decides to investigate us." Teddie reacted with shock this time.

"What are we going to do?!" Teddie was about to start running around the store, Rise then tried to stop him from doing so, least the shop lose some breakables from Teddie's panic, thus completing the change with Be Blue V.

* * *

Around lunch time the Investigation Team meet up at the Chagall Café, the crowd was absent thanks to the fact that café's customers were mostly high school students. Yu looked around to see if anyone was looking, the coast was clear.

"Alright, time to go to the Velvet Room." Yu's order was stalled however as Yosuke then brought a valid question.

"I just realized this but how do we get there?" Yu then responded without shame.

"Wish you were there really, really, hard." Yosuke didn't comment, no one did because it was the only way they had at the moment, even if it sounded like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon. So they wished in their heads and lo and behold it worked… Much to embarrassment of everyone save for Teddie and Yu.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room my guides, have you thought of a way to handle the treatment of our guest?" Igor's eyes seemed to dance with barely concealed excitement, everyone there were a bit unsettled by this. Despite Igor being creepy enough to make even to make even Count Dracula go 'Please calm yourself, you're making it difficult to enjoy my blood red wine.' The Investigation gathered around Igor's table.

"I'm guessing this is the day where we meet our guest then." Yu saw that the elevator had started to move unlike the last time they were here.

"Hehehe! You are correct but at the same time wrong your assumption; things have started to be set in motion. Almost as if the world is getting ready for a grand event of sorts. This alone would be enough to peak my interest but you are here too, ready to guide our guest through the stormy weather to come, however you do not need to worry about meeting our guest tonight, we shall handle the introduction to his entry in this series of events." Yu nodded at this and stepped forward.

"It won't be long before we have to fight alongside this guest of ours then but, there is a problem in that if we are discovered to be the same ones helping here, the guest would grow suspicious of us and start investigating what we're doing, which we really need to avoid." Elizabeth then step forward with idea that only she, Elizabeth! Would be able to come up with on such short notice.

"Perhaps if we present you as people our guest is bound to meet in future? People he should look for should he wish to create unique persona?" Igor nodded at this.

"This does seem to be the best route available to us, do any of you have any objections to this plan." Naoto stepped forward in response.

"The plan itself is sound but is currently lacking in that we don't have an appropriate way to act while in the Velvet Room, in fact this guest of ours might run into trouble he can't handle, which would mean we would have to step in to save him, thus blowing our cover or making the situation even more difficult to handle. Considering our past experiences, this is bound to happen sooner rather than later." This sent the group into deep thought; thankful Yukiko then got her own metaphorical light bulb moment.

"I got it! Why don't we pretend we're statues until the guest finds us in the real world!" This of course made everyone sweat drop at first, until Chie thought a bit more on the idea that is.

"Hey that might just work actually! It kinda reminds me of that musical statues game we used to play!" Yosuke was pretty sure there aren't any games called musical statues but he was starting to see some perks to this idea.

"Okay I guess that settles that but I think we still have one more issue to take care of." Teddie mistook this for a different issue.

"Yosuke! This no time to morn your horrible luck with the ladies!" Yosuke is inflicted with rage.

"WHA?! I WAS TALKING ABOUT THE FUSION PROCESS YOU IDIOT!" While Teddie was being yelled at, Kanji walked up to Igor and started asking about said subject.

"So how is that going? Are we good to go or do you still need some more time." Igor closed his eyes and sighed.

"We haven't made much head way as we would have liked, Elizabeth and I have tried to replicate the same effects as when we first tried to fuse the persona's with your elements but so far we've only been meet failure on that account. We did however do some testing with the persona we made with you. The results are truly wonderful." Kanji didn't know what to reply with after that so he simply nodded as did Rise, Yukiko, and Chie, Naoto however replied with an 'I see' she understood it... Show off.

Yu managed to calm down Yosuke, and Teddie was getting his hearing back from all the yelling, after this the group of three re-joined the conversation.

"Alright Igor, I'm guessing you would like to try to fuse some more personae to see what happens?" Igor smiled madly in reply. The Investigation Team is inflicted with fear.

"O-okay, I think I'll just get my turn out of the way first." Rise said without her usual confidence, Elizabeth pulled out two personae from her compendium, like last time, it was a Pyro Jack and a Jack Frost.

"We'll use the same type of persona as last time to compare the results from our last test. As suspected, your friend Yosuke was able to make a persona that was immune to wind. I wonder what you'll be able to make! Oh the possibilities at hand simply send a chill down my spine!" Rise reacted in an understandable manner.

"U-um okay…" Elizabeth almost caught her discomfort, almost.

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry you must be as excited as me to see what results we're about to witness. Master if you'd be so kind." Igor nodded and looked at Rise in expectance. Rise summoned her persona but didn't break the card holding it, Rise pick the card from the air and handed it to Igor. Everyone watched in baited silence, the cards started to raise and glow. Rise, having learnt from Yosuke's last attempt focused on keeping her persona's power in check as it began to fuse with the other personae. Igor then rose from his chair and started to show visible effort on his part, then in a blinding flash a new persona was born once more. Igor sat back down in his chair and caught the card as it floated down to the table.

"My, what an interesting result! It's the same persona as last time but the result is worlds apart, from what I can tell, this persona along with its natural element, is now immune to any effects from light!" Rise let out a sigh of relief knowing that Igor wouldn't be smiling madly at her. Before any more fusions could take place, the sound of a clock beginning to tick resounded through the room once more.

"A shame, it seems we have spent a bit too long here. Return to your world for now and we'll run some more tests later. Hehehe, until we meet again my dear guides." The Investigation Team then returned to the outside world the same way they got into the Velvet Room. By wishing really, really hard.

...

...

"Wow-we~ how long were we in there sensei?" Yu looked at his wrist watch and confirmed the time.

"About two seconds." Everyone besides Yu, look a little put off by this.

"Partner, did you have to deal with this a lot?" Yu nodded in response.

"Well, I guess we've made some progress in helping our guest but, judging from our experience, things are about to become… complex. Yu-sempai, you've gone through a similar process to awaken your abilities, what do you think is going to happen?" Naoto's question caused everyone to look to Yu for an answer.

"I'd have to say… He's going to be put in a life or death situation where he'll awaken to his persona and then fight some shadows." The rest of the team sighed in response.

"We're going to fight a powerful shadow tonight aren't we?" Rise said in annoyance, the conversation stopped their however. The food for launch had arrived! The conversation was briefly halted but started up shortly after.

"Anyway, back to the topic of shadows. We might have to fight a powerful shadow yes but not tonight, I remember I only awakened my persona abilities after I meet the Velvet residencies; more importantly we can't reveal ourselves to the SEES yet, Rise can you keep please keep your sensory mode off until tomorrow night? We're going to need your help to keep an eye out for the SEES so we don't meet before it's safe to do so." Yu then noticed he had asked Rise as she was eating from her small bowl of sweets, she nodded and made what seemed to be a humming noise to say that she was happy to do so, that or she was just really enjoying her sweets.

Kanji than brought up the metaphorical elephant in the room.

"This great and all guys but how are we going to leave the house without waking Bunkichi and Mitsuko?" Teddie stopped eating for a bit to give a rather obvious answer.

"That's easy Kanji, we leave during the Dark Hour." Kanji's face was blank for a few moments before he started to stammer and blush, Chie looked up from her meal to bring up what was probably the final concern of everyone present.

"Okay, we know how we're going to sneak out, we even have Rise as our lookout but, how are we going to manage without weapons?" Everyone stopped what they were doing at that point and looked at Yu.

"Hm… I think we'll have to manage without this time, but we should start looking around for a place that sell them. If only Daidare were here." Yu sighed at the end, the conversation died down a bit after that but one was for certain. Soon, things were going to become quite complex.

* * *

_4/9/09-Midnight_

Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock, these were the two sounds that seemed louder than ever for the Investigation Team. The clock almost seemed to be stuck on eleven fifty nine, but the clock goes tick tock for a reason because after what seemed to be the longest minute. The clock struck twelve, and the world fell into what can only be described as a sea of green and red, almost like an anti-Christmas theme in a way, the Investigation Team met just outside of Kitamura residence.

"Wow, is going to happen every night? Because if so I think it's really going to throw off my sleeping pattern." Yosuke groaned, Yu however saw it differently.

"Actually if we're not fighting in the dark hour ever night, I might actually be able to see what sleep is like for once."

"We didn't stay up that late partner." Yu looked at Yosuke in a deadpan fashion.

"We stayed up until twelve almost every night for a whole year, I've since found out that my body can function on only six hours of sleep and that's when I'm lucky. I want to see what a normal eight hour rest is like." This peaked Naoto's curiosity.

"Yu-sempai, school starts at eight thirty and you only live about twenty minutes away from Yasogami High as well. Surely you would have had time to sleep in?" Yu shock his head at this.

"No, Nanako always woke me at six because she had heard in class that it was the best way to get the most out of your day." Yu sighed and shock his head.

"We should focus on the task at hand though, Rise can you start searching the area." Rise nodded with a smile on her face.

"Just leave it to me Yu-sempai!" Rise closed her eyes and started to call upon her persona, as she did so, the Velvet room mark on her are started to glow.

"Come, KOUZEON!" Rise's persona complied with gusto, as blue flames came bursting out of the broken card, creating the far seeing persona.

"_All right guys, I'm doing a general scan right now… Hmm… Well I've found where our friends are staying, it's the campus dorm just on the edge on the city OH! I've got two big shadows but one is twice as strong the other one. I think we've got our target… Ah! Not good, Akihiko-san is trying to take them both on!_" This got a predictable reply from the team.

"WHAT!?" Yu's mind instantly went into overdrive, on one hand they couldn't risk being spotted yet but on the other Akihiko will most certainly die if they don't get there in time. The situation didn't seem to have a right answer but only one ended with a dead Akihiko.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to play it by ear! Come on let's go!" The rush there was almost a blur thanks to what was basically one whole year of leg day for the Investigation Team, thankful lady luck was on their side and the shadows had come to them along with Akihiko just in front of them with looked to be a fractured arm.

"Whoa mama! I think we found our target guys." Yosuke said while sliding to a halt, really it was almost cliché in a way. While one multi-armed monster had a rather plain but foreboding mask, the other had an almost mocker of the same mask, what with the uneven surface and the cracks near the nose and, what looked to be a child's attempt at drawing the arcana number on it.

"Rise! Can you get it weakness?" Yu was rather happy with how she replied.

"_Already scanning! And wow did this thing pick the wrong people to mess with, it's stronger than Akihiko for sure but it's nowhere near our strength._" That put the team at ease but then Yukiko said something that almost broke the tension of the situation.

"So… May I have the pleasure of burning it to a crisp?" Yu didn't quite know what to say to that so he just nodded instead.

"_You're in luck Yukiko-sempai, that thing is weak to fire! And Naoto-kun if you want to finish it off with darkness then go ahead it has no resistance to_ _it either._" Both the shadows were almost upon them but, the shadow had no luck tonight as Yukiko and Naoto summoned their persona as quickly as possible.

"BURNING PETALS!" "MUDOON!" The two attacks hit dead on with Yukiko's fire almost killing it in one go but, was swiftly done in by Mundoon. Akihiko had seen it all and decided if it was help, he'd take it.

"HEY! IF YOU CAN BEAT ONE SHADOW DO YOU MIND FINISHING THE OTHER ONE?!" Yu's world seemed to slow down as he considered his options, he settled on one that would most likely come back to bit him soon but interfering with the real shadow could very well mess up the timeline in one foul swop.

"GO BACK YOUR DORM! YOU'VE GOT ALL YOU NEED TO BEAT IT THERE!" Akihiko's face went through multiply visible emotions in a second, first was confusion, then it was distrust, then to uncertainty, then finally determination. Both the shadow and Akihiko speed past them and continued down the street.

The Investigation Team let out a sigh of relief, the darkness of the night made their faces hard to see and Akihiko at most only heard three out eight people on the team. Yu started to walk towards where the shadow once was, with everyone else following just behind.

"So, Yu-kun what should we be looking for?" Chie asked while walking up beside Yu.

"Most likely something shiny, that or the mask will be Chronos power transformed." Teddie's was curiosity peaked why his beloved sensei thought it would one of those two things.

"Why do you think that Sensei? Oh! Have you been on new adventures without us?! Saving worlds and recusing pretty girls?!" Yu chuckled at this.

"No Ted, I've… just been watching a lot of movies lately." Yu admitted with a bit of a blush. Chie's smile took on a sly looked.

"So you've finally gotten around to watching some of those movies I gave you?" Yu nodded with that same blush refusing to leave his cheeks.

"Let me guess, Trail of the Dragon was the first one she said you 'Had' to watch right partner?" Yosuke said with a raised eyebrow.

"Really? I thought Chie-sempai would've gotten him to watch some of the new romance movies she got." The blush on Yu's cheeks despaired but seemed to immedently reappear on Chie's cheeks instead.

"Kanji... how'd you know about those?" Kanji blinked in surprise but gave an answer anyway.

"Yukiko-sempai told me about them, I guess it wasn't a thing that you wanted us to about yet?" Yukiko had a very guilty look on her face as Chie looked at her with a slight glare.

"Let's continue this conversation later, I believe this is where the shadow died, or least, in this general area." At Naoto's suggestion the Investigation Team started looking for any sign of either a shiny object or the shadows mask, Yu suspected it may take a while to find something.

"Guys I found the shadow's mask!" Then again, Yu had been wrong before on some occasions, everyone started to gather around Rise and looked at the mask.

"Well looks like Yu-kun was right after all, but I wonder if this is really Chronos power? Ah ha! I've got idea! Chie, can you please break the mask? Maybe it'll release the power trapped in the mask… If there's any at all." Everyone looked at Yukiko with a slightly bewildered expression, it was easy to forget that Yukiko while unfailingly polite, was in some cases, a total space head. Teddie however was actually thinking bear-y carefully on this.

"Wait a minute Yuki-chan, what if we break it in the Velvet Room? Maybe the big nosed guy can give us some advice on it as well." This caused Yu to chuckle at what Teddie had called Igor.

"That actually sounds like our best bet at the moment; does anyone else have an idea on what to do with the mask?" Yu looked at everyone's face and didn't see anyone looking like they were thinking of an alternative.

"All right let's quickly go to the Velvet Room and then call it a night." And so the Investigation Team wished really, really hard to go to the Velvet Room once again, with Naoto secretly wondering why they had to use such a childish method to get there.

_... _

_..._

"Welcome back my guides, it's almost time for our guest to arrive once again and do not worry, I shall summon you when he comes." Yu nodded at this and got to the heart of the matter rather quickly.

"We think we've found a piece of Chronos power, we're just not sure if we are correct and how to get it back to Cronos." Rise walked towards Igor and put the mask on the table for examination.

"Hmm, interesting… I believe your assumption is correct, this mask is most certainly holding a power within but, it's almost like it was forced into it. If you don't mind me asking, were you given a way to locate these pieces of power?" Chie then seemed to have a provable light bulb moment.

"We've already had something of cliché happen once already with the mask, maybe the marks on our shoulders also glow when we're near a piece of Chronos power?" Everyone on the Investigation Team rolled up there admittedly short sleeves and did indeed see the V symbol glowing purple instead of the usual blue.

"Man, I feel like I should be on Phoenix Featherman right now. Kinda wish they had a purple Phoenix Ranger though…" Yosuke couldn't help but take a small jab at Kanji here.

"Come on dude, we all know that even if there was a purple one you'd still be Feather Falcon for sure Kanji." Yukiko nodded her head at this.

"Yeah! You could be the mysterious member of the group with a tragic past! Oh and then the plot would take a dramatic turn when it turns out the main villain was your father!" Chie and Rise put a hand on Yukiko's shoulders.

"Okay, okay, I think that's enough for now Yukiko." Rise nodded at this.

"Yeah plus, the father turning out to be evil has been done sooo many times now that everyone can pretty much tell when it's going to happen and how the character is going to react to it." Teddie then started to add his two cents.

"Oh! Like in that movie Yosuke showed me before we got mixed up in this mess! Does this mean Kanji's going to get a robot hand?!" Naoto made an 'Ahem' sound to get everyone's attention.

"As fascinating as that was, shouldn't we be focusing on getting Chronos power back to him?" Everyone but Yu looked a bit sheepish considering the gravity of the situation.

"Anyway, it looks like Yukiko's suggestion of breaking the mask is the best way to make progress in getting Chronos power back to him, Chie-sempai if you would like to do the honours?" Chie grinned at this.

"With pleasure! HIII YA!" Chie seems to be getting pumped up, double damage on the next physical attack. Naoto chuckles a bit but then grabs the mask and throws it in the air, just as the mask begins to fall in the middle of the room Chie jumps forwards in a spinning motion. The mask falls half way to the ground but Chie lashes out with a devastating kick! False Magician's mask takes 150 damage, the False Magician's mask shatters.

As the mask shatters a small purple glow seeps from the mask fragments and slowly form a glowing purple orb. The orb then splits into eight pieces and goes for the V marks on the Investigation Team's shoulders. As soon as the orb hits the mark, it begins glow an even brighter purple. The orbs have disappeared but the glow remains on the team's shoulders when a most curious thing happened.

"_He $#%ca&amp;*%$#ear*&amp;^$ello*&amp;%$_" This shocked everyone in the room.

"That sounded like Chronos, I'm sure of it." Yu said out loud, almost as a question but was most certainly a statement.

"What an intriguing development, I would like nothing more than to experiment with you and try and find a way to establish a form communication with Chronos but our guest will be arriving shortly. You all best find a place of rest for tonight before I must summon you. I must admit this is turning out to be a wonderful journey so far." Igor grins madly, the Investigation Team are inflicted with fear, Yu initiates an escape.

"Ah, well then… We'll let you focus on that then." The team had never wished to leave a big blue Velvet Room so quickly before.

The Investigation Team breathed a sigh of relief when they made it back to the Kitamura residence with Dark Hour still active, they were currently sitting in a circle at the dinner table.

"I've got to admit partner that was a lot more stressful than I thought it would be." Yu nodded at this.

"Yeah, I didn't think Akihiko was going to try and take on two giant shadows without back up, but this was back when they were first starting they're journey as persona users." Rise folded her arms and let out another sigh.

"I've got to admit though, from what Akihiko did back there makes me wonder how he became… almost normal when we met him in Inaba." Teddie has a drowsy look on his face.

"Sensei~ I don't want to be mean but can we call it a night? Worrying about Akky like a big papa bear has got me bear-y tired already." Yu nodded at this.

"Teddie's right, we can discuss and plan a lot better if we're not tired, let's call it a night shall we?" And like that everyone went to the same bed they slept in last night and soon after sleep was achieved by the team, after all. Everyone needs to stop and rest every now and then; the world wasn't going to start moving yet anyway.

…

…

…

…

"**Welcome to the Velvet Room…**" But the world started to move anyway, they just had to keep with its pace.


	4. Chapter 4

Those words, those same five words always meant that something was happening; someone was performing just beyond the view of the normal, just outside the hearing of the bored, and just out of reach for those wanting knowledge. This however was something Yu had gotten used to because after a while of being pulled into a situation after situation because destiny, well, you had to either accept it or go crazy from the implausibility of it all.

Igor had already started to welcome the guest.

"It's so nice to see you again. You became unconscious after awakening to your 'power'. I see that it was Orpheus that heeded your call. That power is called a Persona, it is a manifestation of your psyche." Their guest looked around with half lidden eyes for a few seconds, until he finally responded with.

"Who are those people back there?" Igor's expression didn't change from the ever present smile.

"Oh, them? They are a new addition to the Velvet Room, we call them guides. Because like you they wield the power of Persona but have had time to hone their skills in the art; but enough about them." The guest didn't argue with Igor and continued to listen to is advice and eventually was allowed to go back to sleep.

Everything was quite for a moment until the silence was broken with.

"Oh man that was close; I had an itch that just wouldn't stop bugging me back there." Kanji Tatsumi 'Ice breaker'.

"So my dear guides, were you able to get a good grasp of our guest?" The team responded with a resounding.

"No." Elizabeth, in all her wondrous curiosity, asked the question with utmost intrigue present in her voice.

"Why is that? Clearly from that short observation I have determined him to be a rather subdue and quiet young man." Yu nodded his head at this.

"Maybe but that's just a first impression, just like you said about people having a persona they use to face life's hardships, they can also have a different persona depending on the situation." Yu thought back to his time with Adachi, how he played up parts of his personality to cover his true motives at times, Yu shook his head and focused back on the subjected at hand.

"Also, he's a Wildcard like me right? So that means he's going to have a lot more to him than any one glimpse can provide of him." Elizabeth put her hand on her chin, thinking something over in her head. She then nodded and looked at Yu with almost comical resolve in her eyes.

"Then I shall take the time to observe him closer and across multiply occasions to acquirer a greater understanding of our guest, doing so should allow us to assist him to a greater effect." Yu felt a bit of sympathy for his guest. From his own encounters with Elizabeth he found her to be rather… intense at times.

"So our guest can now summon persona, I'm guessing it's up to us to make sure any overpowered shadows come his way?" Igor shook his head at Kanji's question.

"Not quite yet I believe." This caught the Investigation Team a bit flat footed here.

"Aw… don't tell me he's in a coma or something? We just started and things are already going downhill for this guy." Chie's complaints were rather spot on judging from Igor and Elizabeth's silence.

"Man, this guy just started his journey and he's already in a coma? Sucks to be him for sure." Kanji's comment then got Teddie's bear noggin thinking.

"Hey guys, I think somethings fishy is going on here." It was Naoto who responded first.

"Oh? What's caught your attention Teddie?" Teddie put his bear-y human claw on his bear-y human chin in thought.

"Well, I was there when Sensei awakened his persona, but he wasn't exhausted. In fact I'm bear-y certain that he looked a bit more energised than before. So what's different about this guy?" The team began to think deeper on this while the Velvet Room staff looked on with knowing smiles.

Yu was the first to come up with a theory as thoughts of the aftermath from his battle with Margaret came to mind. '_While we were fighting, I recalled the fairy tale the girl told me once. Before that girl left… She told me this. A soul slumbers at the ends of the world, that a young man who devoted himself to becoming a seal… That soul is risky itself to prevent mankind, who has lost the joy from calling down ultimate destruction…_' Yu's world seemed to slow down as he considered his options.

While Margaret didn't tell him a time frame, it did sound like a recent event of sorts to her. Then again, Velvet Room members aren't human, physically at least. So what would be recent for her might have been a life time to him. Yu shook his head, too many questions and not enough information to even put together a theory as to what's happening.

"I think we should come back to this later, when we have a better chance of actually helping the SEES without risking the timeline… Er, at least any more than it already is…" Yu tack on lamely at the end.

"Yeah I have agree with partner on this one, it's just like when we were starting to Investigate the murders back home, trying to come up with a theory of what's happening now is just not going to help later on." Yosuke looks frustrated by this.

"Still if our guest really is in a coma, I believe we may have some free time of sorts. I believe it would be prudent to use this time to plan our next move on how to hand things." Rise nodded at Naoto's suggestion.

"Yeah, plus we really need to find a place to get you guys some weapons to use in case a shadow gets too close for comfort." Yukiko nods along and brings up another point.

"We should also explore the city, knowing where to go and having land marks should make tracking shadows much easier." Yu takes all this in stride, exploring in the mornings isn't going to be an option and exploring during the Dark Hour is simply asking for trouble, Yu comes to a conclusion.

"All right, I think our best bet for achieving any one of those things is to do so once when we finish work." Yu's mind flashes with inspiration on how to give his friends a better chance to connect on a deeper level.

"Still we can only cover so much ground as one group, by splitting into pairs we'll be able to cover much more ground and maybe find things we would miss as a group." Yu smiles in his head, its subtle enough that-

"Nice try partner but we already know what you're trying to do." Yosuke smiles slyly at Yu.

"Yeah… You got me." Naoto sighs at this.

"First Yu-sempai and then Bunkichi-san, surely Kanji-kun and I don't seem that close? If Kanji-kun really was interested in me like that, then surely I would've noticed something by now." Yu had overheard this and decided to leave her be.

"Well we've got our plan for tomorrow, I think I'm ready to head back to sleep tonight." Rise was stretching by the end of her sentence. One by one everyone said their goodbyes to Igor and Elizabeth, after all time was marching on in the real world it wouldn't do to keep the guides in the Velvet Room all night.

* * *

_4/10/09_

The Kitamura residence was starting to develop a morning ritual of sorts, every morning Yu and the boys woke up first, followed by the Kitamura couple, soon follow by Chie and the girls. It was almost comical in way that there was defiant pattern developing between them all, the events taking place when everyone was awake could most certainly be said to be comical.

Yukiko had made good on her promise and was helping Mitsuko cook breakfast, Mitsuko soon learned of Yukiko's skill level in cooking… It was not as bad as it used to be but stomach pains are still stomach pains, even they no longer seem to summon The Reaper to sight when you take a bite from the meal.

Breakfast seemed to almost go by in a flash, Yu and Chie finished their meals first and were also the first to leave, Rise, Teddie, Yosuke, and Yukiko then left shortly after leaving us with only four people left. The Kitamura couple and of course, Naoto and Kanji; Cupids! Draw your bows and AIM TRUE!

"Uh… So Bunkichi-san ah… Do you have any more work for us to do around here?" Bunkichi looked thoughtful for a moment then shook his head.

"No actually, because of your heavy lift yesterday Kanji-chan we were able to get straight to arranging the books! How much left do we have to arrange my dear?" Bunkichi had a cheeky smile on his face as he looked at his wife.

"Honestly dear, you are such a worry some times. Thanks to Naoto-chan, we already have most of our stock organized, we're ahead of schedule." Mitsuko looked over to where Naoto and Kanji were sitting.

"I think we've earned a break from setting up the shop for now. Consider it a day off for you two, in fact since you two have some free time, why don't you explore the city a bit?" Naoto and Kanji were about to agree when they realised something.

'_Is Mitsuko trying to trick us into going on a date?_' Naoto decided she should be polite yet firm on this matter of match making.

"Mitsuko-san, while your attempt to get me to go a date with Kanji-kun is-" Bunkichi's then butted into that sentence like a bull spotting a waving flag.

"A date with Kanji-chan? What a wonderful way to spend the day!" The suddenness of the statement caught Naoto a bit flat footed as well as shocking Kanji into speech.

"Wait a sec! A date with Naoto-" Mitsuko cut in with frighting charisma.

"Oh I know, it must be quite exciting Kanji-chan but, Naoto looks to be someone who gets confused if you're not direct with her in terms of feelings. The trick is to try to keep yourself from stuttering and being overly flustered." Kanji could only reply with.

"Wait! Wha?!" Naoto was getting quite flustered herself, she was about to protest once more but Bunkichi got talking first.

"Now my advice to you Naoto is to ask questions, because Kanji-chan seems to be the gentle type. He won't make you do something you don't want to do but he's also going to want to do somethings that interest him more than you. He might get flustered at this though and not know how to put into words what he wants to do, so you gotta make sure he gives you a straight answer with the questions you ask." Naoto respond of course with.

"Wait! What?!" The pair then soon found themselves being gently pushed to the front door by the elderly couple, the two because just stammering mess at this point. Moments later the two found themselves outside the house with the couple shouting '_Have fun!_' when they closed the door on them.

The pair stood there stunned for a while trying to process what just happened until Kanji came to a conclusion.

"I… Did they… Naoto… ah! Chan er, san? Ah I mean… did they just force us on a date?" Naoto nodded her head.

"I believe they did… Ummm… I'm not really comfortable with just being forced into a date though." It was this moment that Kanji's world seemed to slow down, for so long, in all the time he had known Naoto. He tip toed around his feelings for her, the thing was everyone but her, seemed to catch on to his feelings. Kanji came to a decision and no matter what outcome it brought, he had confidence it would take a weight of his shoulders.

"Um… I don't really like the idea of being forced into a date either… But I… Umm… Naoto would you like to… go… onadatetoday?" Kanji blurted out the last of his sentence but Naoto understood it all the same.

It was in this moment Naoto world seemed to slow down for her, but unlike with Kanji or Yu there were a lot more emotions swirling in her head.

'_What does this mean! Does Kanji have a crush on me? Do I say yes? This might hurt our friendship if something goes wrong! Am I ready for a relationship like this?_' Naoto's mind couldn't seem to calm down but then she started to think more.

'_Maybe I should give this a chance, I've never done something like this before but… I know Kanji hasn't either. This is strange; I've read about things like this happening in fictional books but for it to happen to me…_' Naoto stared into Kanji's eyes and saw him waiting, not in excitement, not in expectation, but for an answer.

'_I know Kanji and I know he speaks his mind quite plainly, he can surprise you with insight gained from experience and emotion and I know he would come running to the aid of not just myself but to everyone he cares about…_' Naoto started to think harder when she came to a realisation.

'_I know what I have to ask myself here… How much more do I want to find out about Kanji? Well I guess there is a first time for everything._' Naoto nodded to herself and looked Kanji in the eyes once more.

"I think I would like to go on a date with you Kanji." As Naoto answered she could feel a blush creeping up onto her cheeks. For Kanji, it was like he could feel a bolt of shock run through him, then he just felt happy. Like all of the sudden his body was filled with more energy than he could handle.

"Ha…Haha! Yes! I don't know why but it's like a… like… I don't know but I feel so happy!" Kanji couldn't quite stop himself from jumping a little in his elevation at all this.

"Um, yes that's… Ahem, it does feel… Nice." Naoto was struggling to think as clearly now but she was most certainly trying to think of somethings to do on her and Kanji's… date.

"Well, let's have a look at some of the shops nearby. Perhaps they will give us an idea of what to do today." Kanji nodded at the suggestion and the two started walking. Courage isn't always just something you use in battle, it's sometimes the motivating step in making something new yet scary, love truly is a terrifying unknown but then, unknowns are meant to be explored.

* * *

Afternoon came by in what seem to be only a few minutes for Chie, she'd been doing such constant work she didn't notice how much time had passed until lunch. Yu came out from the kitchen area of the café. The two smiled at each other before they walk off together.

"All right Yu-kun, everyone should be starting to search for a weapon shop now but, we should text them where we're going so that way we don't overlap our searches." Yu nodded at this suggestion.

"Good idea it'll only take a moment." One quick team text later, the two soon found themselves walking by shop after shop, and not one f them was weapon related, this was quickly grating on Chie's nerves.

"Come there's got at least be one of those weapon imitation shops for some anime around here! What's worse is we're not even a quarter of a way done exploring this shopping area." Yu could help agree.

"I can understand all the restaurants but why are there so many shops dedicated to only shoes, tops, and pants… It seems rather unnecessary if you ask me." Chie gave Yu a dry stare.

"Well the more choices for clothes the better but… I would like the stores to actually have more than one type of clothing." Yu sighed, things weren't going too well for them but maybe-

'**_Buzz Buzz_**' And a text from them means we probably had the same idea. Yu held back a sigh and looked at the texts.

"**Hey Partner, thing aren't going to well here. You doing any better?**" Yosuke and Yukiko were having no luck.

"**Yu-sempai, I've got nothing here! Plz tell me you've found something!**" And neither was Rise and Teddie.

"**Sorry Sempai, but Naoto and I haven't found a shop that sells weapons**. **Are** **you having a better luck than we are?**" Kanji and Naoto were the last hope finding a weapon shop today.

"No luck Yu?" Chie asked but already knew the answer.

"Yeah, no luck, I think we should head back for now. We can discuss what to do later." Chie sighed and leaned to Yu slightly, one quick text later and everyone was head back to the Kitamura residence.

* * *

All was quite in the Kitamura house, you'd think nothing was stirring, not even a mouse but eight teens did lie awake and wished themselves to the Velvet Room, post haste!

"Welcome to the Velvet Room my dear guides." Igor's greeting was still something of an oddity to the Investigation team but they said hello back.

"Igor, do you have any idea of when our guest might wake." Yu was going to try and plan ahead as much as possible, Akihiko was their first sign that although these are the same people they would meet in future, they hadn't grown into those people from the future yet; here in this point in time the SEES were still only teenagers with powers they didn't completely understand and it was up to the Investigation team to help guide them on what was now a very shaky path to victory.

"Hmmm, an interesting question but it is one I cannot answer. You see here in the Velvet Room, we are fully aware of our guest's state of being and what goes on around him." Elizabeth then took to the stage and explained further.

"Now while this is a great boon in how we assist our guest, we cannot see everything. Say for instance a terrifying beast of a man was spying on our guest, we would have no way to know of him until our guest takes notice." Igor then continued on from here.

"Our main point is we can only see what some may call a person's '**World**' but that is all we can see. Right now since our guest is in a state of slumber we can only see him and those who come to visit him in that small hospital room his." Yu sighed, so Igor could only see the guest and what he deemed important.

"Looks like the odds are stacked against us here Igor. On the night our guest awakened his power we had intervene to save an important person to our guest's quest, he may have only heard three of us at most but he most certainly knows something is a foot now." Igor nodded.

"This is troubling, but I'm guessing there's more to troubles here." Yu held back sigh and continued onward.

"Yes, one of the many reasons we have to wait before we assist our guest directly is because the SEES were comprised of more members then it currently has at the moment." Yu looked to Naoto with a meaningful stare, Naoto walk to the front of the group and continued on.

"I remember Mitsuru-sempai telling me about the members of the SEES in total I believe she said there were nine of them but two passed on. I can make an educated guess as to who but that would be off topic for now, as I was saying the members of the SEES were Mitsuru Kirijo, Akihiko Sanada, Yukari Takeba, Junpei Iori, Fuuka Yamagishi, Ken Amada, Agisi, Shinjiro Aragaki, and of course a dog named Koromaru. These are the people that must be assembled before we can even think of helping more openly." Igor's smiling face was looking quite grim at the moment.

"That is quite a lot of people to gather, if we're not careful everything could be for not. I hate to even dare suggest this as a possibility but you may have to restrict yourselves for a time to just fighting the grander shadows." The Investigation Team visibly paled at this.

"D-dude! That sounds like a horrible plan, if Chronos power is still out there then it might deliberately go against the rules the shadows follow." This caught both Igor's and Elizabeth's attention.

"Rules? Did the shadows from your time have to follow a certain set of guidelines?" Elizabeth inquired with a tilt of her head. Yukiko put her finger to her chin as if in thought.

"Sort of, the shadows we know followed certain behavior patterns each time we encountered them." Chie continued with the explanation.

"Yeah! Even though each shadow had a different personality they all confronted their human self and exposed their deepest secrets to the public! Ah, and by public, I mean us." Chie smiled nervously at the end.

"I see, my last set of guest also kept an eye out for certain behavior patterns to find more powerful shadows, even with the two higher powers gone… it seems shadows still act to the current play's script." Rise walked to the front of the group and joined the conversation.

"Plus Chronos is the god of time, if his power is stolen and being used by some rookie, then chances are, important events are going to play out a lot differently than they should." Igor face had turn into a scowl at this point.

"For once it seems that the odds are not just stacked against our guest this time, we must proceed with caution here." Everyone was perplexed at what to do until Teddie had an a proverbial light bulb moment.

"I've got it Sensei! We may be here to make sure our guest doesn't get stomped on by some serious grizzlys but we're also here to help him grow into one heck of a bear himself!" This brought Yu to his senses as well as a flood of new ideas.

"Teddie's got the right idea, we're only here to help guide him not fight all his battles for him and I think I know how he's going to get through this mess." Yu looked at Igor with a fire in his eyes.

"Igor I would like to go next for helping in the fusion." Igor's smile had returned.

"I see, I SEE! Yes most wild cards do survive thanks in part to the fusion of personae, with you here however. The strength of the persona our guest can make is near the beginning of his journey should be much greater than is usual seen." Igor started to chuckle a bit madly at this but instead of inspiring dread like usual; it inspired hope in the Investigation Team.

Elizabeth the pulled out her compendium and summoned the two personae used the last experiments. The two persona were placed in the fusion circle, then called his own persona but did not shatter its card form instead he gave it to Igor; the personae where now in a triangle formation and Igor started the fusion process.

Almost immediately Yu could feel his power in the process start to grow unstable, Yu reached out with his hand to try and focus and calm his power but it was apparent to everyone there that it was taking a visible strain on Yu. Igor himself was standing a lot sooner and was showing much more effort than on the last fusions. Yu felt his power slipping from his control when that bright flash happened.

Igor and Yu were both out of breath when the card floated down to the table, Igor sat back down on his chair, picked up the card and examined it. After a brief moment of silence, Igor gave a bone chilling smile to the Investigation team.

"Simply amazing! While that was by far the most difficult fusion I've had to do in quite some time, it has created an incredible result. This persona here has physicality as its main element, or as Elizabeth has suggested is your terms, '_Physical damage is a thing of the past_' Although I'm not quite sure, she might have gotten that wrong." Elizabeth for her part was trying to look innocent but there was that tell-tale smile of hers that was distinctly mischievous. Yosuke whistled at this, remembering the first time his partner had switched persona just as a 'God Hand' attack was about to him only for it to break apart harmless as it made contact.

"This certainly could swing things to our favor if our guest can hold the line for while against some of the bigger shadows." Kanji looked unsure despite the recent discoveries.

"I think we've got a problem though, we made it look like he had to find us to get our help." Naoto gave out a sigh which caught everyone's attention.

"It's as I feared, one or more of us may have to be the incentive for our guest to seek out the rest of us." Yukiko for some reason light up at this.

"Oh it's just like some of those games I've seen online recently. That means someone has to… Ah? What was the term they used again? I remember now! Hand holding! Someone has to be the hand holding part of a video game." Yu shook his head in amusement.

"Well I guess since I'm a Wildcard as well, I should be the first to greet him. Chie, do you want to join me on this." Chie put a finger on her chin in mock thought.

"Oh I don't know, will I get a date afterwards?" Yu smiled at the idea, it had been a while since it was just the two of them.

"My, aren't you forward today." This statement caught Chie a bit flatfooted as she was trying to get Yu to blush a bit.

"Well there I suppose I'll just have to accept this invention to Chie's date." Yosuke saw a familiar glint in Yu's eyes, it spelt out mischief in big bold subtext writing.

"Please take care of me on this date Chie-kun." Yu said timidly while in a surprisingly well done girl voice.

"W-w-w-wait a minute! I'm meant to, WAIT I MEAN!" Chie has become confused.

"D-did I do something bad Chie-kun." Yu played up the shirking violet act causing Yosuke to snicker a bit, Rise and Yukiko were using their hands to stop themselves from laughing while Naoto just had an assumed smile on her face.

"Maybe if I wear something a bit more R-risqué maybe Chie-kun won't be as upset." This caused Chie to get quite flustered but she tried to calm down and play along with the situation as she had heard the rest of the Investigation Team snickering in the background.

"N-now Yu-chan (Ah, that feels so weird to say) you don't have to push yourself like that just to make me happy, b-besides I think you're much c-cuter when you dress in a feminine but conservative style." Chie tried to finish that with charming smile but it came out nervously instead, Yu blinked at Chie for a moment before he started to laugh. Chie couldn't help but join in with the rest of the team, after everyone calmed down.

"Well at least now I know what to wear on our next date Chie." This got a nervous laugh out of Chie.

"Please tell me you're not really going to crossdress for our next date Yu-kun." Yu smiled warmly and pulled Chie into a hug.

"Of course not, I was thinking of going to that restaurant we went to when came here from our time. What was it called again though?" Yu didn't stop hugging Chie but it look like he wanted to fold his arms to help him think.

"Oh! I think I know which one you're talking about Yu-kun, not many people have gotten the name down because it was apparently too hard to say for most tourists, so most people call it '**The Beef Bowl Shop**' We should go there as a group sometime. It should be fun! What do you think everyone?" Everyone agreed to this without hesitation.

"Well what an night it's been so far but time still marches on in world; unless you would like to try some more unique fusions I think it would be wise to say farewells for tonight." Yu looked around and saw no was really looking like they wanted to try and fuse something else tonight.

"No, I think we're done for tonight Igor. We'll see you again soon, also good night Elizabeth." Elizabeth bowed politely in response to this. Then darkness fell around the Investigation Team with sleep following just behind. Tick tock, goes the clock, Tick tock, goes the clock, TICK TOCK!


	5. Chapter 5

_04/20/09_

Morning was a quiet time at the Changall Café which was something Yu rather liked. It was at this time you'd meet the more interesting customers and everything wasn't in an almost constant state of hurry and rush. It was also the best time to over hear the latest news and gossip from the early rising students, and this time Yu had struck gold.

Two high schoolers from Gekkoukan High stopped by the café for breakfast and they started to talk about the latest news and rumours, Yu was only listening with one ear so to speak until one of the girls had caught his attention with…

"Yeah! See one of my cousins works at the hospital near by just came over to our house this morning because he had to work from, around eight thirty PM to six o'clock AM but here's the juicy bit I was telling you about. Remember that new guy that transferred here like, around a week ago? Well turns out he was like, in a coma for the like the last few days or so. But just this morning he woke up and you won't believe who was there in room when he did~" Yu smiled as he carried an empty tray back to the kitchen area.

When Yu got to the kitchen he quickly pulled out his phone and sent a text to the rest of the Investigation Team letting them know their guest was awake. For the rest of the morning Yu kept an eye out for a boy with blue hair, if there was one thing he remembered about their guest it was most certainly his hair.

Lunch time came by rather slowly to Yu as he'd been keeping an eye out for their guest but if hadn't shown up in the morning then he'd have to wait until the afternoon. Yu pulled out his phone and texted everyone if they could meet up at the café.

Everyone was seated around one table and everyone had order their food, Yu decided to kick off the meeting with the good news.

"All right, last week went by with nothing too out the ordinary happening to the city. Although I think that's about to change soon, as our guest is finally awake." Yu said with a smile on his face the whole time.

"Nice, so how are you going to meet him? I mean we do have to at least be a little discreet in how we meet him other whys he'll wind up suspecting us." Yosuke finished with a humorous tone.

"Don't worry about it! Me and Yu have come up with an excellent plan to lure our guest in and give an obvious hint that we're with the Velvet Room." Yosuke leaned back into his chair with his arms crossed.

"Okay so fill us in, what's the plan?" Chie was about to answer when the food arrived! A hungry stomach comes first! And a critically important plan comes second in grand scheme of things!

As the Investigation Team had finished enough of their meal to talk again, Yosuke picked up where he left off.

"Right, like I was saying before. What's the plan for two meeting our blue head guest?" Chie smiled toothily, not very welcoming to those on the receiving end.

"Okay so one of you-" Chie's eyes landed on Yosuke as she said this "Are going to put in an order for a big velvet cheese cake as a last minute order for a birthday party! Fully paid off." Yosuke could swear his wallet was getting lighter by the second as Chie unraveled her and Yu's plan.

"Then just as Yu finishes baking the cake, you call in saying that a relative had just fixed the cake problem but as an act of kindness." Greed on Chie's part "You let the café keep the money you paid for the cake and then that's how well meet our guest." Everyone but Yosuke was considering this plan, Yosuke however was currently hugging his wallet.

"Why? Why can't I just have one week where I can keep you from lossing so much just for a meal…" Yosuke seems to be a bit down, thanks to this plan.

"Chie-sempai, Yu-sempai, I'm afraid, well, this plan won't work long term, as we have no way of knowing when he'll come to this area." Naoto had put a halt to the current plan much Chie's disappointment and Yosuke's happiness.

"Yeah I've got to agree with Naoto-kun here, it would most certainly work and not too many people would question it unless they were really paranoid but it sounds like a one off time thing Yu-kun." Rise voice became rather encouraging near the end of it. Yu put a hand up to his chin started to revise the plan at hand.

"Hmm, I think I got something. Chances are I'll most likely see him around the afternoon when the flow of customers will have calmed down a little, I'll call him over to the café ask him if he would like to try my new cake recipe. It would certainly bring attention to me but I think we'll need that to happen if we're going to be dropping hints that we're with the Velvet Room." Naoto was thinking plan over in her head, see if it had any major flaws with its design.

"That plan sounds a bit nicer, right Yosuke-sempai?" Kanji gave Yosuke a playful pat on the shoulders.

"Yeah, I like this plan a lot better than the other." Yosuke was almost crying tears of joy, almost. Chie sighed at the loss of her net profit from the first plan, oh well, it wasn't too big a loss, she and Yu were going to give Yosuke a major discount for the cake anyway.

"Well I think we've hit a winner with this new plan, does anyone else having any complaints about it?" Chie was more so asking Yukiko, Teddie, and Rise than anyone else at this point, after a few moments of silence Chie shrugged and went to finish her meal.

"I think that's about it for now, still we should keep an eye out for him this afternoon just in case." Everyone nodded at this, ready for the search to find this blue haired boy…

He didn't come by that day.

* * *

_4/21/09_

Yosuke had just finished putting away a new batch of CDs in the back of the store, it was Rise's old album er… new to everyone else though.

"Man I forgot just how quickly Rise's popularity skyrocketed back then, now, err. Ah forget it." Yosuke was manly talking to himself here but Yukiko had heard just enough to join in.

"I do have to admit it's kinda surreal how everything is new again, fashion trends that were fading out around our time are starting to become a trend. Even some of the advertising I had completely forgotten about is fresh in everyone's mind." Yukiko was waiting at the counter with nothing to do, her and Yosuke had been running the store rather efficiently only problem was that they had run out of work to do on their second day there, what a rather bothersome problem.

"I hear that, I've had to catch myself from recommending songs choices to customers that don't exist yet, it's rather annoying to honest." Yukiko nodded in agreement, some of the more interesting (this word is highly subjective to the person know as **Yukiko Amagi**) bands she started to listen with Chie. Yukiko let out a sigh, she was bored out her mind and chances were their guest wasn't going to be coming by today. Yosuke saw this and did something Yukiko didn't really expect.

"Hey Yukiko, do you want to hang out after work today." This got her attention.

"Huh? Are you asking me out on a date Yosuke-kun?" Yosuke shook his head although a stray thought did pass through his mind '_Even if I asked you out you'd just shoot me down_' depressing.

"Nah, not this time. It's just that I noticed we don't really hang out a lot outside of meeting up with everyone else, so I was thinking why not just hang out together today? You know, play at the arcade or find something to talk about at the Kitamaru's." Yukiko tilted her head slightly to the side, she didn't really see any harm to it and maybe it'd be just as fun when she and Chie go shopping at Croco Fur, well probable not but it's always good to try new things.

"Okay Yosuke, let's hang out this afternoon but I'm warning you." Yosuke flinched back at the sudden change of tone in Yukiko's voice.

"I'll crush you at any of the arcade shooters!" Yosuke noticed a bit of pride at this statement but he couldn't back down either.

"Heh, is that so? We'll just have to see about that." Yosuke and Yukiko seemed to be having a heated staring competition… Let's just leave them be.

* * *

Rise watched the clock with half lidden eyes, today had been remarkably slow. Then again, many of the popular brands names had announced when the latest greatest in fashion was being released, meaning a lot of the usual customers avoid the place to stop themselves from impulse buys and actually start to save money, it wasn't all bad though. Some kids had come by in the morning with paper check list and some money given to them by a teacher, a school play was being held soon and the kids got to go out with the teacher to get some props for the play, all in all it was a rather cute and enduring thing to see.

"Sigh~ Today is just so boring, isn't there anything fun we can play while we're waiting for customers Rise?" Teddie was not helping Rise in her attempt to get lost in thought.

"Not unless you want to do a manual count of what products we have left to sell Teddie." The reply was almost instant with Teddie putting his arms in an X shape across his chest.

"NO THANKS! Still it would be bear-y nice to get some customers to come by soon, then maybe this place wouldn't seem so quiet." Rise couldn't help but agree with this, Be Blue V was almost eerily quiet at times.

'_Come on Rise think! Doing nothing all day isn't going to be much fun… Maybe I should come up with some better marketing for this place with Teddie?_' Rise stretched a bit before covering a yawn with her hand, she then gave herself a light slap on the checks to wake herself up.

"Well since today's looking like a bust for customers Teddie, why don't we come up with some advertising to draw in some customers?" Teddie brightened up at this.

"Oh, me and Yosuke got to this all the time at his place, he was bear-y knowledgeable about what was drawing crowds and how to catch their attention! I think I might remember a trick or two he used to grab the crowds attention." Teddie said with a bit of smugness at the end, Rise giggled a bit at this.

"Alright then, I WANT THOSE THINGS YOU REMEMBERED WRITTEN DOWN ASAP!" Rise successfully caught Teddie of guard with this.

"W-w-w-wha?! I mean! Yes Rise-chan I'll get it done right away!" Rise stifled a laugh at this, still it should be interesting to see what Teddie comes up with, Rise then got her own pen out and went to look for some paper. Making this into a friendly competition should pass the time and come up with better ideas.

"Just you wait world, we'll turn Be Blue V into the best accessory shop you'll ever see!" Rise seems to planning something big, maybe we should just leave her be.

* * *

Naoto was currently lamenting the loss of her hat on the way to this time, because currently she do nothing but turn head to the side now to hide what she felt was a tomato red face at the moment. Her first date with Kanji had be… awkward, slow, and filled with nervous attempts trying to start a conversation. Yet for some reason she felt an urge to try it again, which leads to now.

She and Kanji had finished stacking and sorting a lot of the new books that arrived today, leading to Bunkichi giving them the rest of the day off… again, it was clear what his real intent was but it was still embarrassing. To make things worse Kanji had thought he'd messed up the first date, meaning he wasn't going to be the one to ask for another one, it was going to have to be her to decide if she wants to keep exploring a relationship at this moment.

"Ummm, so… here we are again… together… by ourselves." Even though Naoto mostly mumbled this Kanji managed to still hear it and stuttered out a reply.

"Y-yeah, we are… Look Naoto…" Naoto decided to take a page out Yu book and politely interrupt.

"Shall we go on other date?" Perfect! She got the reaction she wanted from Kanji, stunned silence.

"W-w-wait, even after how terrible that last one was?" Naoto nodded in confirmation.

"Yes… even though that last date was… quite poorly paced, I would like to still go on another… date." Kanji mouth was moving but no words were coming out of it.

"And if you're trying to ask why? Well, I don't really know but I think I want to know more? No… That's just silly, I think it's because I want to see what's it like, to have a relationship like this." Kanji was silent after this.

"Then don't force yourself to do something you're uncomfortable with." Naoto was caught by surprise with this.

"What do you mean that Kanji-kun?" Kanji looked around, until he saw a bench and made his over there with Naoto following just behind. They both sat down and Kanji continued from where he left off.

"Look, I don't know how to say it properly like Yu-sempai but I think this one of those things were if you force yourself to do something, you'll regret it, you know?" Naoto took a moment to think on this and found that Kanji wasn't wrong. Yes, the first date hadn't gone exactly smoothly but that didn't bother her much as she supposed it should. That's when it hit her, she wasn't asking Kanji out on another date to continue exploring a new type of relationship, she was doing it out of social expectation; she was using what knowledge she had on a situation not from her own experience or feelings but of what was expected to happen in it.

Naoto felt like a weight she didn't know had been there was lifted of her shoulders, she smiled and looked a Kanji.

"Thank you Kanji-kun, I didn't realize how nervous I had been about dating, of the things I've done you'd think dating would be the last one to make me so nervous that I'd use an expectation to decide my next action." Kanji laughed a little at this and put a comforting hand on shoulder.

"Yeah it takes guts to fight and all but dealing with emotions is something else." Naoto chuckled alongside Kanji.

"So where shall we go today Kanji?" This took Kanji by surprise.

"Wait Naoto didn't hear just what I said before?" Naoto nodded at this but was more focused and having a little stretch at the moment.

"I did Kanji-kun but this isn't a date, I'm still not sure if I'd like to be in a relationship of any kind yet so I won't be asking for any dates, but there are a few things I like to learn about as a friend Kanji-kun and maybe…" Naoto checks blushed a little here "It can become something more… Given time of course!" Kanji sat in awe for a few second before smiling himself.

"Alright! I think the first we should do is find a place where I can stock up on wool." This was what was taking place on the outside of Kanji's head, here's the inside.

'_You know what, I think I like this more. Before it felt forced but I think this is how should be, friendship until it's something more. Now I could've sworn I saw a place selling wool the other day._' The unknown now has a port in the storm, a place they know where it's safe to relax and do whatever. Understanding can help make the unknown something easier to comprehend and grow wiser because of it.

* * *

_04/21/09-midnight_

Ah sleep, one of life's greatest gifts; because with sleep comes dreams, like puffy clouds of imagination designed just for your own sleepy entertainment… Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock… The clock's struck twelve and the dark hour has come.

Yu woke up thanks to the shift in world, if that was going to happen every night Yu was not going to be happy with being woken up. He wasn't the only one as everyone else was woken up too. The Investigation gathered around the dining table. Yu was about to start talking when he felt a yawn coming on leading to Yosuke starting the conversation.

"So… It's the dark hour again? Ugh this is really going mess with my sleeping pattern at this rate, anyway; Rise can you please do a quick scan of the area, see if anything is happening out there that's going to need us to step in?" Rise nodded sleeply in response when suddenly their vision was greeted with a flash of velvet blue.

"Oh boy…" Was all Chie had time to say as they were summoned to the Velvet Room. As the blue light died down, the Investigation team was focusing on standing as still as statue. Their guest was here and by the looks of Igor's grin, was about to learn how to start fusing persona together.

"I've been waiting for you." Creepy is the word of the night boys and girls, remember that.

"The time has come for you to wield your power. The tower that you are about to venture into… How did it come to be? For what purpose does it exist? Regrettably, you are not yet capable of answering these questions. That is why you must be aware of the nature of your power." Their guest had stay remarkable calm and still through Igor's rant but instead of asking about his power.

"About that door…" Yu was being to think there guest might have a bit of skewed sense of priorities.

"It leads here, although no one but you can see it; well almost no one." The guest looked like he was about to ask about that but Igor march on in his explanation.

"Your power is unique. It's like the number zero, it's empty, but at the same time holds infinity possibilities." Their guest's eyes widened a bit at hearing this.

"You are able to possess multiple persona and summon them as needed, and when you have defeated your enemies, you will see the faces of possibility before you. There may be times when they are difficult to grasp… But, do not fear. Seize what you have earned. Your power will grow accordingly, be sure to keep that in mind." Their guest nodded in acknowledgement at this.

"My spare time will soon be scarce, but please, come again of your own accord. I'll tell you then about my true role and theirs… The manner in which we can best assist you." This most defiantly caught their guest attention as it looked like he was about to say something but Igor as usual was much quicker.

"Until then… Farewell." Their guest then disappeared in a flash of Velvet blue, Igor then turned and looked at the Investigation Team.

"I trust you are all prepared for the roles you are set to play?" Everyone nodded in confirmation.

"Good, while I'd like to finish the remaining two fusions you have to offer. I must prepare our work space for the fusions to come." Igor's eyes were alight with excitement. Everyone has inflicted with fear.

"Until next time my dear guides good night." This time the flash of blue was on the Investigation Team once more. When the flash died down they were back at the dinning.

"You know, as much as I would like to go to bed right now. We should still see if anything is too dangerous for the SEES to handle." Yosuke said tiredly, he looked like he was fighting off a yawn. Rise didn't nod but just summoned Kouzeon and started to scan.

'_Alright, let's see… alright so everyone's at the big tower thing._' Rise head titled to side and Kouzeon's arms followed to allow it.

"I believe they call it Tartarus Rise-chan." Naoto seemed to be sleepy as well.

'_Thanks Naoto-kun, anyway… Hmm, well apart from the higher parts of that tower everything seems to be within their ranger of power… Oh! There's also death in the tower, wait that's weird… he's just wandering about in there? Almost like a guard dog I guess. Well I hope they don't try and fight it, that's just asking for trouble unless you're on our level of skill and power._' Teddie was almost asleep at this point but just managed to lift his hand up in the air to agree until he fell over backwards and went to sleep.

"Don't get cocky… Overconfidence leads to disaster." The team nodded but everyone was just about to fall asleep again.

"Alright, that's enough for one night, good night everyone." And like that everyone went to bed, how swell.

* * *

_04/22/09- After School_

Today had been a bit boring, outside of meting Kenji Tomochika and seeing him get a frankly silly punishment for nearly falling asleep in class, everything kinda just fell into the background like a static noise. Still lucky Junpei had been at the school entrance, maybe we'll be able to do something on the way back to the dorm.

Huh? What's going over there?

"Look! It's Akihiko-sempai!" Could that be a… Fangirl?

"Wait for us!" Amazing so this is a fangirl trying to follow someone… creepy, and by the looks of it Akihiko-san isn't enjoying the attention.

"Have you noticed how popular Akihiko-san is with the ladies?" Not until just now, no. "Man take a look at that… I didn't use to talk to him much, but now I've got a good excuse. I know he's the captain of the boxing team, but… Who would've thought he'd such a chick magnet!?" From the looks of the crowd, the females, all the females think he's a chick magnet and are trying to make him their own.

"I mean come on, You don't even see girls flock like that on TV! Wonder where they're going…" Judging from the looks and movement of the swooning females, towards us.

"Hey are you guys free this afternoon?"

"Huh? Er, who, us!? Hell yeah! Whatcha got in mind?" Beautifully done Junpei, I know I couldn't recover that well from a surprise.

"I want the two of you to meet me at Paulownia mall. You know where it is right? I'll be at the police station. See ya there." The police station?

"Th-the police station? You mean, we're not hangin' out with your friends…?" Thank you Junpei, you've stated everything I wanted to ask.

"Who, these girls? I don't even know their names. They talk so much they give me a headache." Wow, that takes some skill right there, to be that unbothered by such a large crowd, just wow.

"Anyway, I'm gonna head out… Don't keep me waiting." Now it's just me, Junpei, and a gaggle of fangirls for Akihiko-san.

"Awww… Why can't he be more friendly?" Try treating him like a person and not a symbol of good looks and you might get somewhere, just a thought. Still the crowd is dispersing now, personal space reacquired.

"Man, how can he not know their names!? I mean, seriously just look at them!" I have, it was like looking at pack of hungry wolfs, it scared me.

"Oh well, let's go." Right, time to go to Paulownia Mall… Where is that again?

...

...

Hmmm, this doesn't seem to be Paulownia mall, huh what's this?

'**Book worms closed due to termite extermination, reopens on 04/25**' what do you know? Maybe I'll have to cheek this place out.

"You know this is not the police station, right? We're supposed to go to Paulownia Mall! Not here!" Ah, opps.

Alright, I'm pretty sure this Paulownia mall, now where's that police station? Hmm, maybe it's down this alleyway.

"Dude, you passed the police station! Turn right!" Oh, somehow I completely miss that. Well this seems to the stop, might as well go in.

"Thank you sir." Well there's Akihiko-san, hope we didn't keep him waiting too long.

"Oh, these are the guys I was talking about earlier." Hello officer, please stop looking into my soul, it's rather shy about being peeped on.

"This is officer Kurosawa. He helps keep our squad well-equipped, and, this is from Ikutsuki-san." Wait is that money?

"R-really!? Sweet!" Ah it's 5000 yen, not a bad amount… I guess.

"You can't fight empty handed, so find something you like. Officer Kurosawa has connections… But, these things still cost money."

"Of course they do. Nothing in life is free."

"I realize that. Well, I'll see you later. Thanks again." Oh no he's staring at us again, quick Junpei, guard your soul!

"I've been informed about you two. My job is to maintain peace in this city, regardless of circumstances. I'm just ordinary police officer, but it doesn't take a genius to know something strange is going on here." No it just takes a magical power called persona, you should get one, it's a blast to have.

"I'm only doing what I think is right. I don't have much, but you should be able to find what you need." Alright let's have a look at what you've got… Junpei, I don't think we'll be able to equip ourselves well with our current funds. Maybe it's time to go now, just nod at the police officer and maybe I can keep my soul from being peeped on. And… we're out.

"Pshh, only 5000 yen… I'm going to take off, since I'm in a bad mood now… Later" Okay bye

"Hey you two!" Huh?

"Huh?" Oh good, me and Junpei are still on the same wavelength.

"Sorry about this but could you come over here for a moment?" Junpei's looking just as confused as me right now, might as well see what's up.

"Sure, why not." Junpei looks a bit conflicted at my choice but joins me anyway.

"Hey sorry about calling you two over like this but I need your help with something." Uh…

"Uh, don't worry about it's cool, just, what did you need our help with." Thank you Jenpei, you must be my mind given another body and personality.

"Well I've been thinking of adding a new cake to the café line for the afternoon but, all my usual taste testers aren't around, so I was wondering if you two would like to try it." Junpei looked at the silver haired guy wearily.

"You're not going to charge us after we try this food out, right?" This caused the silver haired guy to laugh.

"No, don't worry I'm making the cake with ingredients I bought myself so I don't have to charge you for this."

"Well I suppose it couldn't hurt since it's free, right? B-but don't get any ideas about charging us at the last minute, we got our eye on you. Right Minato?" I nodded to confirm this.

"Alright, take a table and I'll have a cake ready for you to test out." The silver haired guy went to the back the of the café where the kitchen must be. Me and Junpei then proceed to pass the time by him giving me some school gossip, that is until a rather pretty girl came to our table.

"Hi, sorry about the wait, so are you ordering or a you waiting for some food." Junpei had a bit of a blush on his checks as he answered the girl, I must admit I'm having trouble not blushing myself.

"N-nah, see this silver haired guy called out to us whi-"

"Wait, silver haired guy?" Oh so she knows him, I wonder what her opinion on him is.

"Do you know this guy?" Junpei was also listening carefully it seemed, judging by how he was leaning in a bit.

"Hm? Of course I know him, he's my boyfriend."

…

…

I don't know why but I think my heart just broke a little bit. Ah even Junpei is disheartened, I heard what you said, 'Lucky bastard' indeed.

"Ahem, ah, right, so what's he like? your boyfriend I mean." Smooth Junpei, real smooth. The girl put a hand on her chin and started to think some details over.

"Well, he's almost a quiet person but he talks a bit too much to be one, he's also quite kind and polite to people even if he's just met you he'll try to be polite as possible. And don't tell him I said this but even if he appears to be one of those stoic cool guys you see on TV all the time, he's actually a real sweetheart and dork who's admittedly a bit on the feminine side of interests and hobbies." She giggled to herself at that last part.

"But the biggest thing to know about him, apart from his name of course; is how he will stick by his friends and family no matter what, heck if one of his friends was trapped in some impossible situation, he would still try to help no matter what." The girl had a bright smile on her face the whole time she was talking about him… I wonder if I'll have someone who will talk about me like that one day?

"Geeze Chie, don't give all my secrets away just yet."

"Whoa, dude you scared us! I didn't know people could be so sneaky." The still unnamed silver haired guy smiled apologetically at Junpei.

"Sorry about that, anyway here's my latest creation **Blue berry Velvet Cheese cake**, let me know what you think." What do I think? This looks like something out of a magazine cover!

"Dude… You're telling me we get to eat this for free?" The rather annoyingly still unnamed silver haired boy just smiled and nodded.

"Go ahead dig in." I want to know your name already… maybe I should just ask… after I try this cake out.

Okay here goes… This rich fluffy texture! The bursting sweetness of the blue berry jam on top! The layers of flavor… It's almost too much! I think I'm being overwhelmed, no come on stay awake, yes! Victory!

"Whoa…" The still unnamed silver haired guy looked at me and Junpei nervously.

"Well, how'd I do?" I looked at Junpei to see how he reacted, it looks like he's trying to figure out what words to say, I think I'm the same boat actually… Wait I got it.

"It was amazing but… it was almost too much, at times I thought I was going to pass out from it." Junpei then clicked his figures at this.

"Yeah, that's just it! I was almost overwhelmed as well, I think you need to find a way to tone it down with the flavors. Because as awesome as that was I think I'll be in food heaven if I take another bite." I'm not leaving this situation without a name from you!

"I didn't introduce myself before, my name is Minato Aristo."

"And I'm Junpei Iori, nice to meet ya!" The soon to be named guy smiled at us.

"Nice to meet you too, my name is Yu and before you ask, yes, it really is just Yu. No last name." Oh… This just became a bit awkward.

"So your Velvet themed cake didn't just hit the mark Yu, it smashed it. Better tone it down a bit for future recipes. Speaking of velvet, I'm thinking of adding some velvet colored clothes to my wardrobe this summer but, maybe I should add some other colors to go with them." The finally named Yu was picking up the two plates containing food heaven currently, it'd looked like he wanted to use his arms to help him think but couldn't at the moment.

"Yeah, having more than one color to go with your outfit usual works rather nicely in summer fashion I hear." Yu-san looked over at the clock on the wall for a moment, probable means he's going to be leaving soon. "Well you two, when I'm done cleaning this up, Chie and I will be heading home but if you two ever want to stop by here again and try out some of my new recipes, feel free to do so. It'd be nice to see some friendly faces a bit more often."

"Yeah, of course."

"Dude, if your other recipes are anywhere near as tasty as that one, consider me an official patron of this place." This got a laugh out of Chie-san.

"Alright you two have a good afternoon, I'll be in the back helping Yu wash up. See ya later!" Junpei stood up from his seat and stretched a bit.

"Oh man, my bad mood from early is completely gone but I'm still going to head back, what about you? Are you going to hang around here a bit longer or you going come back to the dorm with me?"

"I think I'll explore here a bit more, I'll be back before dark though." Junpei nodded happily.

"Alright I'll see you back at the dorm." I waved Junpei good bye, now… About that dark alleyway…

* * *

A big blue door is existing in a lone alleyway… It's gotta be that Velvet Room place, well no time like the present. The door opened with slight wooden creak.

"Ah, there you are, welcome to the Velvet Room." That's still creepy but he does seem to still be on my side here.

"Well… I suppose it's time for me to explain what I really do here. It is my job to create new personas, but in order to so, I must fuse your persona cards together… In other words, I shall merge them into a single persona" So I lose two persona I can summon but I might gain a persona more powerful than the two individual persona, interesting.

"The number of personas you have buried within you is approximately one hundred and seventy. We've never seen a visitor with this many possibilities before…" Thank you? "If you establish Social Links, you may be able to create even stronger personas too." Okay, making friends gives me super powers, cool.

"Heh heh heh… This should prove very interesting. Now as you've no doubt noticed by now behind me and Elizabeth are eight people hidden from your sight, they too are persona users like you and have agreed to help you on your journey so that you are not crushed by forces outside of your control but they also have another way to help you. Before they can though, you must find them and correctly infer they're identity either in the real world or here in the Velvet Room." Okay, I most definitely need some more information on this.

"Will they be trying to let me know who they are?" Igor smiled madly.

"Yes, they've decided to give you hints based on the Velvet Room, making it easier to narrow down the possibilities of who they may be." Wait, no way…

'_Sorry about that, anyway here's my latest creation_ _Blue berry_** Velvet **_Cheese cake_'

'_Speaking of _**Velvet**_, I'm thinking of adding some _**Velvet**_ coloured clothes to my wardrobe'_

"I believe that's all I have to say, when you gather persona cards bring them to the Velvet Room. Then talk to me so that I may give you some hints." Elizabeth walks forwards and asked politely.

"How may I help you?" Well there's no harm in guessing is there?

"I would like to name two guides identities." Elizabeth nodded at the request.

"Very well, please name two of the eight guides you see before you, I must warn you however. You may only guess each guides identity three times a day, tread carefully now." Okay, that's a little worrying but I better go with it.

"Ummm, would the guides Yu and Chie please step forward?" Elizabeth giggled at this still I hope I'm right.

"Wow, he caught on pretty fast didn't he Chie?"

"He sure did! Hey, how about we show him our persona as a reward?"

"Sounds like a plan, let's do it." Weird but I can feel my heart starting to race, what's going on.

"Come… IZANAGI-NO-OKAMI!"

"Come… HARAEDO-NO-OKAMI!"

Two circles of blue flame lit up around, I could feel two insanely powerful presences come into being. It was strange but it made feel like a child seeing what two fully grown adults were capable of for the first time.

The persona Yu summoned was a warrior clad in a white and gold with a giant sword by its side, for some reason, looking at this persona made me feel like any lies I had told myself were suddenly smashed to pieces in his presence but there so much more to it as well. Like an whole different world giving a physical embodiment.

Chie's persona was different it was, colour wise at least, like the opposite to Yu's in that it was mainly clad in black and gold but the feeling it gave was so much more personal. Like a young mother or an older sister staring down at you and reading you to see if you had been up to any mischief but just like Yu's persona it inspired a feeling, it inspired a strength in me I didn't know I possessed, strength to do more than just protect friends and family.

But just as soon as they appeared, they were gone. I slumped in my chair not realising my posture had straightened to an unknown extent, so these are only two of my eight guides? Just what in world am I facing?

"Well Minato-san, I hope you're ready because you have quite the journey ahead." Yu-san had walk out of the dark and revealed he was wearing a Velvet Room uniform and so was Chie-san for that matter.

"Still you don't have to worry Minato-kun, we're here to make sure you're not put under a bus until you're ready for it." I couldn't help but laugh at this point, I don't know why but I had the feeling my life from this point on was going to be quite… complex.


	6. Chapter 6

Minato's laughter went on for a bit longer then everyone expected, the only one who seemed slightly miffed by this was Igor. Eventually Minato calmed down, Igor then immediately went into another rant explanation, seems to be his thing really.

"Well done! You've found two guides to assist you from here on out, now allow me to explain what a guide does here in the Velvet Room and in the outside world. Early as we were discussing our role here to fuse Persona together and create even stronger ones in the process, guides enhance that process to new and wonderful levels but it is not without its own limitations. For you see, when a guide helps create a new persona, they add their own element to it, meaning a persona who's weakness was ice could suddenly be immune to it and even have some more bonuses to it than at first glance." It was here that Igor sighed.

"However this is where a limitation is found, while the guides may be able to make powerful persona, you have to carry them and the burden is quite heavy. The reason for that is the same reason the personas made by our guides are so strong, they're putting a bit of their power into it as well." Minato's eyes widened at this.

"Quite surprising I'm sure… As you are now, you're only capable of carrying one persona made by a guide. Grow stronger and make more connections with people and you may find that you'll be able to carry a few more burdens then you first thought." Yu walked just past Igor and began the second part of the rant explanation.

"Now comes the tricky part of helping you outside in the real world, like Chie said 'we're here to make sure you're not put under a bus before you can handle it' but we're not here to fight your battles for you." Minato nodded at this before asking.

"So what situations can you help me in?" This caused Yu and Chie to frown.

"Not as many as we'd hoped Minato-kun, but we are here for a reason!" Minato looked a bit confused, so expanded on what Chie said.

"Well, Chie is right; we did come here to help for a reason, because if we use the saying 'I've got enough on my plate already' well, something or someone are trying to add to it." This earned Yu a dry stare from Chie.

"That was horrible Yu." Yu let his head fall in shame.

"Yeah it was." Chie chuckled weakly at her boyfriend's behaviour.

"Anyway… There are some situation that you call us for help, like if you see a shadow that doesn't feel like it belongs and is overwhelming powerful, that's probably a safe bet to call us down and for you to run away." Minato nodded again to show he understood.

"There are other situations we can help as well but you need to find more guides before we can explain them to you." Yu saw Minato was frowning slightly at this part, actual it was kind of like a pout, a bit of both actually.

"So I have to find the other guides? … I'm guessing you won't be helping me find them?" Yu smiled mischievously at this, confirming Minato's suspicion.

"Well that's about all we have to say at the moment, what would you like to do?" Minato nodded to himself, then got up and left… Yu wondered if that was what he was like when he left the Velvet Room without doing anything because he was still planning on what to fuse… It was awkward to say the least.

"Right well I think we'll just head back ourselves." Yu said a little weakly due to the awkward situation, then the Investigation Team vanished in bright blue flash. Elizabeth turned to look at Igor with an excellent suggestion.

"Perhaps we should add some something called '**karaoke**' to the Velvet Room to ease awkward situations like this?" Igor politely ignored Elizabeth's suggestion; they already had a soprano singer who wouldn't stop singing already. Seriously, you could even still hear her even though she was in a different room.

* * *

Tartarus was entertaining visitors at the moment, sending them lovely entertainers that could kill them in an instant if they lowered their guard without the power to back up such a carefree act.

"BUFU!" They didn't drop their guard for a moment here, Minato had just experimented with his three personae currently in his head. This caused a reaction from Junpei, as one might expect.

"Dude, did you just summon a different persona? How? I mean, why? You know what, screw it, better just go with it." Minato nodded in agreement but couldn't help but notice Junpei was looking a little down.

"Don't worry about it Junpei… My personas seem to get stronger a lot slower than yours and Yukari's" This elected shock from both party members.

"Whoa, for real?" Junpei seemed to gain a bit of his pep back, while Yukari seemed to be worried about something.

"So then how do your personas work then?" Minato was about to explain what he knew when Mitsuru butted in.

"Yes, if you have any information about your unique power, it could help us plan more efficient strategies for the future." Minato looked around for a relatively safe spot to explain, he found the stairs. After wondering over to where the stairs where located he began to explain some details.

"Let's see, well apparently I'm a bit of a unique persona user called a wild card." Junpei looked a tad confused by this name but didn't interrupt.

"And according to Igor, wild cards are persona users with the ability to carry and use multiple persona." This time Junpei had to interrupt.

"Wait, wait, wait, who's Igor?" A valid question for those who could not see magical velvety blue things.

"He's the man in charge of the Velvet Room." Yukari sighed in exasperation.

"I think you're going to have explain things a bit further before we come to the conclusion that you might be insane and seeing things." Harsh, also slightly silly considering you are climbing a tower that is your school transformed in a hidden hour between 12:00 and 12:01AM, while summoning your social mask given a semi physical form; this shouldn't be all too surprising.

"Takeba please try and keep an open mind, considering our own situation is far from the norm as well." This caused Yukari to flinch a little and look away in embarrassment. Minato then continued to explain what little he knew.

"Well the Velvet Room is where I can fuse my persona together to make a stronger one." Junpei sighed a bit at this.

"And let me guess, we can't see it because we don't have contract or something?" Junpei didn't bother hiding any sarcasm.

"Yes." This caught Junpei by surprise.

"Whoa! H-how'd you get one then?" Wait for it.

"A small child in a prison outfit made me sign one." And there it is… Dead silence.

"Ahem... Yes as strange as that was… I believe we have gotten off topic here, Arisato-san can you please focus on explaining your abilities as a wild card." Mitsuru's tone was firm and held no room for argument, Minato nodded to confirm this order.

"Well, I guess my main strength is that I can summon different personas to aid in a fight, my weakness apart from the ones each persona carries, is that my persona won't grow at the same rate as everyone else." Mitsuru made what sounded like a thoughtful humming sound from her end.

"But it's strange Aristo-san, even though you said your personas don't grow as strong as everyone else, I can tell your at the same level of strength as Takeba and Iori-san." Minato shrugged in response to the question.

"The personas have to stay somewhere and I guess I have to be strong enough to house them." Junpei sighed wistfully and looked up at the ceiling.

"Man, this night just got really weird, um, weirder than normal. I mean, next thing you know, Yu-san and Chie-san will turn out to be persona users!" Junpei laughed a little expecting Minato to at least smile at this, the almost surprised look on Minato's face spoke levels on Junpei's observation skills.

"Please don't tell me that's actually a thing." Minato nodded at Junpei's statement.

"Okay, I won't" Junpei fell to his knees in shock, this was it, guarding common sense and normality was no longer an option for Junpei tonight. When he got back, he was going to lay down and sleep this off like he had an really upset stomach.

"Wait! More persona users? Magnifique! Aristo-san can you please introduce us to them so that we may ask for their assistance?" Minato thought it over and nodded.

"You can ask but I don't think they'll say yes." Yukari looked concerned by this.

"What? Why wouldn't they want to help, I mean the Dark Hour might be the cause of the end of the world if we don't find a way to stop it from happening. Why wouldn't they want to help with the world at stake like this?" Yukari was getting rather agitated with this it seems, changing the subject soon would be a good idea.

"In their own words 'We're not here to fight your battles for you.'" Junpei looked at Minato with a bit of confusion showing on his face.

"Wait, when did Yu-san say something like that?" Minato gave him another kinda of blank look.

"In the Velvet Room." When Minato looked back at Yukari, even he could see she was rather angry at his two new friends he'd made today.

"Mitsuru-sempai, do you mind if we continue this later, Yukari-san doesn't seem to like the topic too much." This snapped Yukari out of her rage.

"N-no wait a minute." Mitsuru cut her off like a knife cuts through warm butter.

"Yes, Takeba does seem a bit sensitive on this topic. Very well, we shall discuss this at a later point." And just like that the trio continued to climb the tower, with Minato being none the wiser that he had just made the Investigation Team's job that much easier and harder at the same time.

* * *

_04/23/09-afternoon_

Today had been a good day in Yu's mind, the customers were plentiful, the weather was nice, and he spied Naoto and Kanji actually on a date. How did he know it was a date, he may have eves drop a little and heard the two of them jokingly say that this was much more pleasant than their first date. Speaking of which, he and Chie were also set to have a date this afternoon. Nothing overly fancy, just spending time together, going to the movies, and eating their favorite foods, it's the simple things that work best sometimes.

"Oh hey there Minato-kun what's up?" Well their guest is here… with no Junpei? A feeling of dread creeps up in the back of Yu's mind.

"Ah… My sempai is interested in meeting you… (as persona users)" Yu couldn't here that last part but, judging from Chie's facial expression, it wasn't spelling out super happy fun times. Yu looked at the clock and saw he and Chie had about ten minutes left, so wondering out should be fine seeing as most the crowd is gone anyway.

"Hey Minato-san, what's going on?" Chie gave Yu a bit of a dry stare.

"Looks like we've got an appointment with Minato-kun's sempai…" Yu's brain was currently in overdrive at this, thinking of how to play this out but, one thing was for certain. Mistsuru-san had to meet them on their terms and grounds. Yu then had a proverbial light bulb moment, here goes nothing.

"When would your sempai like to meet us?" Minato actually looked sheepish saying this next part.

"Ah… she'd like you to meet her tonight at our dorm." Jackpot!

"Sorry Minato-san but me and Chie already have plans for today." Minato looked at the pair with a raised eye brow.

"Oh, you're going on a date?" Yu nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah, we hadn't been on one for a while so it's pretty important. Do you mind asking her if she can reschedule for tomorrow and maybe meet us here at the café?" Minato was thinking this over, he was missing something but he couldn't quite tell what but, he nodded in the end.

"Okay I'll let her know, also me and Junpei might be stopping by tomorrow, see ya." The pair waved Minato good-bye, when he was out ear shot Yu pulled out his phone to call a meeting in the Velvet Room.

* * *

"Oh man, oh man, oh MAN!" Yosuke was freaking out at the moment with everyone else looking just as worried.

"Yu-sempai, for once I don't know what to say. This puts us in a rather compromising position, and should Mitsuru-sempai find out who we are, well I don't even want to think about it." Naoto shivered. Rise looked like she was deep in thought, after a few more moments she looked up at Yu.

"Well, if we're lucky she'll accept Yu's invitation to meet at the café. If not well…" Yukiko looked at Chie with worry showing through in her eyes.

"Well, there's usual always a positive to situations like these. Maybe if we focus on those we can get a sense of what to do." Kanji was the first to respond to this.

"Well, if things go well enough, maybe we can use some of the same stuff the SEES use?" Teddie eyes lit up in confidence, seems Teddie has an idea.

"Oh, why don't we turn the potential good things, into goals for Sensei and Chie-chan to aim for!" The Investigation Team was starting to calm down at this point, the way forward seems to be getting clearer.

"That's actually a good idea Teddie! Alright so goal number one is to see if we can gain access to some weapons!" Kanji looked at Chie weakly.

"Ah… Chie-sempai, I didn't say that…" Chie seemed to ignore this as she continued to discuss the goals of the meeting with Mitsuru.

"Well, it'd be nice if we could move around without having to be worried about being spotted by them. Of course some of us will have to stay hidden from Minato-san but I think that's something to worry about for a different time." No disagreed with Yu on this, everyone was thinking of a third goal when Yosuke asked a bit of an off topic question.

"Hey Naoto, what sort of gear did Mitsuru-san and her friends use during this time?" Naoto looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head.

"I'm not quite sure, Mitsuru-san didn't mention anything specific when telling me about what happened, and neither did the reports I read about this incident. The only real things I'd say we'd have knowledge on are who's on which side." Naoto's thoughts turned to the profile of Shuji Ikutsuki, how he'd manipulated the SEES into his insane plan which he seemed oblivious to the fact that had it succeeded, he would've died too.

Shaking her head clear of that man, Naoto looked at Yosuke with a questioning looking.

"Why did you want to know about this, Yosuke-sempai?"

"I thought if we knew what sort of gear they used here, it might help us decide on what to aim for in the meeting but at the moment it looks like we just need access to some armor and weapons, and get them to trust us so we don't have them breathe ring down our necks the whole time we're here." Everyone sighed at this, it looked like tomorrow was going to be a challenge. Yu turned and looked at Igor just before they all left.

"Ah, sorry about disturbing your afternoon tea Igor." Elizabeth and Igor took a sip of their drinks, before Igor looked over at them with the usual crazy smile.

"Not a problem my dear guides, it's nice to have some lively company every once in a while that doesn't try to rearrange the Velvet Room at a moments notice." Igor then turned a knowing stare onto Elizabeth, who was humming a little tune, trying to look as innocent as possible. No bought the act, not even the humanoid pervert bear.

* * *

_04/24/09-afternoon_

Yu was humming a happy tune, despite the surprise! Surprise! Meeting happening today with Mitsuru, his date with Chie last night went surprisingly well. Actually it was really nice to just be alone with Chie and talk, not over the phone but just talking with her, it was nice. Yu then looked up from the kitchen bench he was wiping down and saw that his shift had ended for today, he finished wiping down the last bench and went outside to meet up with Chie.

Now came the boring part, waiting… it was going to take a while for Mitsuru to get here it seemed. Chie decided to strike up a conversation.

"Well today was fun wasn't it." Yu nodded at Chie, he looked around for a free bench to sit on, target acquired. The couple made their way over to the bench to continue the conversation.

"Yeah, today was fun. I even got to show how to make another cake." Chie smiled nervously at this.

"So… Have I gotten any better at cooking yet?" Chie was fidgeting nervously as she waited for Yu to answer, Yu put his hand on Chie's to assure her.

"Yeah, you're absolutely getting better at cooking but I still think you should leave the cooking to me." Chie sighed at this.

"What's wrong? Are you still worried about your feminine side?" Chie shook her head.

"No, well, yes and no I guess. It's just that I realized recently that when you've come back to visit Inaba, and we're at your Uncle's house or mine, well, you're taking a lot of the more female expected roles. I didn't mind at first, honestly if you started to wear dresses in private with me I wouldn't mind." This caused Yu to raise an eye brow, Chie then realized what she just said and became a bit flustered.

"Ah, I, uh, sorry that was off topic and… anyway!" Yu really wanted to comment on that but Chie was getting something off her chest here, it'd be rude to interrupt.

"Well, some of my family poked a bit of fun at this first, nothing serious but then one of the neighbors or someone must have overheard because recently there's been some rumors going around about us and… I don't like it, I don't care if there insulting me because I know they're just rumors but some of the people have started to bug me, Yukiko, Kanji, heck! Even Rise, Teddie and Yosuke have been bugged about this lately and those three never usual get sought after like that for information on a rumor, and it's all for information about you." Chie squeezed Yu's hand in frustration but, Yu just smiled at her.

"Thank you Chie, for looking out for me." Chie smiled back, her checks were feeling like they should be as red as tomato.

"Well it not like you need to worry about rumors but, they're still trying to get personal information about you out of us. It's calmed down recently but it still gets me mad, ya know?" Yu nodded in understanding, Chie had calmed down here but grew a bit nervous at the sly smile growing on Yu's face.

"So… What's this about me in dress?" Chie got extremely flustered at this point.

"Ah! Well, I just… Ummm." Yu leaned into Chie with that same sly smile still on his face.

"If you wanted to see me in such things you only have to ask." Chie shot up off the bench quicker than most people could see, with her face being tomato red.

"O-o-okay, that's enough of that! Oh hey! Look I think that's the person Minato-kun wanted us to meet!" Yu had an amused look on face that didn't seem to be leaving anytime soon, but Chie was right. It'd seemed Mitsuru was here… along with the rest of the SEES, well! This be awkward.

* * *

After Yu found a big enough table for everyone to sit down at, Mitsuru introduced herself.

"Hello there, you two must be Yu-san and Chie-san. I know you've already met Aristo-san and Iori-san but if you'd kind enough allow the rest of us to introduce ourselves, that'd be wonderful." Yu looked over to Chie who had sat next to him, Chie shrugged as if to say 'Why not' and Yu nodded to let the rest of the SEES introduce themselves.

"Thank you, my name is Mitsuru Kirijo, the one to my right is Akihiko Sanada." Akihiko nodded his head in greeting and said.

"How's it going?" Before either Yu or Chie could respond Mitsuru continued on.

"The one on my left is Yukari Takeba." Yukari didn't look like she wanted to be here, Yu couldn't help but think there was some tension in this group but he could be wrong.

"Thankfully the café area here is usual quiet in the afternoon so we decided to meet you here." Mitsuru's polite demeanor had changed slightly, like a cat about to pounce on a unsuspecting mouse, except in this case the mouse was packing magical powers.

"Aristo-san tells us that you two are persona users." Minato didn't look away but he did look extremely sheepish.

"Now I'm going to assume you two know what the Dark Hour is, correct?" The couple nodded in response, Chie decided to answer this one.

"It's when the world turns a shade of green and everyone turns into coffins, right?" Mitsuru nodded in satisfaction it seemed, judging from the small smile on her face.

" Yes, at this point I would ask you to join in our struggle to stop the Dark Hour but Aristo-san also told me you two would most likely say no to joining us, why is this?" Yu didn't sigh here, as much as he wanted to, instead he looked Mitsuru straight in the eyes and told her as much of the truth as possible.

"Because we have different goals then you, and before you assume it's to prolong the dark hour, I can assure you that's not it. Our goal actually is only relatively related to the Dark Hour due to the location." Mitsuru's eyes narrowed a bit here.

"And what is your goal if you don't mind me asking." Yu just gave her a sympathetic smile, she knew what was about to come next but it still bugged her a bit.

"Sorry we can't tell you." Akihiko look a bit miffed here and butted in a bit.

"Can't? Or won't?" Yu couldn't help but take this chance for comedy.

"Yes." Akihiko blinked before realizing what Yu had done by answering with yes, he couldn't help but smile at this. Mitsuru was not pleased at how this was going so far, then inspiration struck.

"So, are you two perhaps involved with the Velvet Room somehow?" This caught Yu and Chie off guard for a moment but quickly settled back down again.

"Yes we are, Chie and I are known within the Velvet Room as guides. Our main purpose is to give the one we're guiding advice should he seek it and to make sure no outside forcers interfere with the guests journey." Yukari was the next to butt into the conversation.

"Wait is that your goal, to help Minato-kun stop the Dark Hour?" Yu smiled enigmatically at Yukari, neither confirming nor denying what she said. This put Mitsuru on edge, so they we're clearly on Aristo-san's side but they wouldn't interfere directly. It sound suspicious but she also had a hunch that they didn't mean ill to them.

"Wait, I recognize your voice now. You were a part of that group that saved me from that second shadow that was chasing me." And like that, Mitsuru's hunch was confirmed.

"I see so you were helping even then, still I was surprised that such a powerful shadow appeared that night, the fact two appeared was more frightening then surprising I have to admit though." Mitsuru gave Akihiko a wry smile but he just shook his head with a look of exasperation .

"It didn't help that it happened on a full moon, it made me feel like I was in a horror movie." Yu and Chie couldn't help but think that last part was relevant; maybe it was the recurring rule for big shadows to appear this time.

"Yes well, I'm grateful for your help so far. I'll assume you're on our side for now but make no mistake we'll be keeping an eye on you." Yu noticed Mitsuru's posture had relaxed a bit now.

"Still since you are guiding our friend, do you mind if we asked for some tips in combat? Having the title of guide does imply some past experience after all, like for instances, how did you use your weapons in combat?" Yu looked thoughtful here but Chie beat him to the punch line.

"Well, I already kinda of knew some Kung-fu at the time but I guess we just pick up the skills as we went along. Yu and Yosuke had the hardest time learning how to wield their weapons and…! Opps! I probably should wait until our guest finds some more guides before we can tell stories like that." Minato looked like he was having a hard time keeping that smile off his face.

"Well speaking of weapons, do you mind if we asked where you're getting yours? We got ours from an art maker but we could bring them with us." Mitsuru noted that Yu had been a bit vague there but she supposed it was to not give Aristo-san anymore hints than they were supposed to.

"Very well, we'll give you limited access to our current weapons suppler but you'll be under heavy watch while doing so." Yu nodded politely at this.

"Now is there anything else you'd like to discuse here Yu-san?" Yu nodded once but Mitsuru noticed he had a rather unnerving look in his eyes.

"Yes Minato-san, Junpei-san, I just finished memorizing a recipe today, would you like to try it?" Both boys accepted quite quickly.

"Do you mind if we join this as well, I'll pay for everyone's meal just this once." Mitsuru said with an comically resigned look.

"Don't worry, you won't have to pay this time, I'm making this recipe with my own home bought ingredients you don't to worry about it." Mitsuru unknowingly breathed a sigh of release. Little did they know that once you've be lured in by Yu's cooking, you can't leave without the urge to come back for more, greed at its finest here.

**Author notes:**

**Once again, I'm sorry. No point in mopping about though, and there are a lot of things I'm curious to hear about from you lovely readers, like how do think of my character interactions? Are they too out character? Or are they surprisingly in character? I'm baised there actions here from my playthrough of persona 4 Golden so I was a bit scarred that I might get them wrong. Please leave a review to let me know and finally and most importantly.**

**Merry Christmas to any who's reading this and, may you have the happiest of holidays. **


	7. Don't get your hopes up

Sorry if you were hoping for this to be the next chapter but it's just and update, so what's going down. One, I've been on a binge of anime and video games alike and even writing my book, which has lead to me having a very fuzzy memory of the persona 3 plotline. So instead I'll be focusing more on the Naruto story, you know the one with even worse spelling and grammar?

...

That belongs to me, sorry should've been clear from the start there. So I'll be working on that to let my mind play a bit more and feel like I'm forcing myself. Speaking of work, I've got TWO jobs now, but you can probable guess what that means, even slower updates but, this isn't the only thing that's taking a hit, my youtube channel has gone silent as well, mind you that's because I'm trying to get things sorted in my personal life.

Well, that's all from me for now, if you are looking for a good read though, then how about a rare good variation on a self insert fanfiction. Check out Lang Noi's Catch Your Breath, or if you're feeling experimental, why not check out Dan Shive's El Goonish Shive.

Until next time ladies and gentlemen, good bye.


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